Day 12

We got to Miami, finally @ 7:30, went strait to Mincha, and after that Dan dropped us off @ Shragi's aunt, Dan really didn’t want me in his house, lamo, oh well....

we drove around a while, and we went to Dougies, had some meat that was not rotting in a cooler for 2 weeks, nice change of pace, went to look for a bar, then got lazy, went back to the Weberman's place (Shragi's aunt) and caught the beginning of the roast of William Shatner on Comedy Central. then retired for the night, lots of driving, really tired, almost finished with my case of red bull, going back tomorrow night, 8pm flight, I just realized I have college this Wednesday, I though I don’t have class till next Tuesday so it cam as a bad surprise, oh well what can I do,

ttyl

Frustration

Ides of March


ttyl

Day 12

so we drove all night, we arrived in Dunedin, stopped off in some Holiday inn, staying here for a couple of hours, just had a BBQ @ 4AM, great breakfast, or dinner, depends how you look @ it, lol

TTYL

arrrrrrrrrghhhhhh another rant !

ok, I love music in many forms, but I really never got into the music in other languages, and in particular Jewish music, and people might love it, and that’s cool, but nobody can profess it as being any good, I mean contemporary Jewish music is all cheap rip offs of other great songs, and its even worse to have a whole car listen to this pure shit, it totally blows, hell I put up with an hour of S&G, but this Jewish crap totally blows.... so horrid I hope the speakers blow soon, Jewish music is not meant to drive to and even worse, blast in a car with me in it!

:End Rant:

100,000 Miles

ok, not a big deal for Aryeh, Shragi, or me, but for Dan and his family... i guess they give a shit about this. here the pics @ 1AM on 8/27/06, the old mule made it this far, but god know it wont last much longer.... e just hope it gets us down to Miami with out anymore trouble.

Day 11

Shabbos was great; Rabbi Oirechman and his wife were extremely nice. The food was outstanding, and the students and other locals who came for dinner and lunch provided great company and we felt very welcome by everybody. Ok enough of the formal thanks you, and on to the breakup and the particulars...

We got to Tallahassee around 5:30 PM on Friday and looked for the closest motel to the Chabad house, we found the Suburban Hotel, rates were not great, but our choices were limited, so we made due w/ what we had available.

We got ready for shabbos, but we had an issue, with getting in to our hotel room, but I suggested leaving the window open, and reaching for the door handle, which was simple enough, and left our door locked so we did that.
Mincha was called for 7:30 PM so we started around 8:00 PM and we made the minyan, so they thanked us, and it was a great Davining, lots of singing, really nice. After Ma'ariv we sat down for Dinner, and there were about 35 people there for dinner, half were students form FSU the rest were local Jews who came for a Shabbat meal. There were allot of people, but there were four people who were very welcoming that was the Rabbi, Sam, Tal and Bret. So Thanks to them also. Tal spoke about being in Haifa when the first Katusha rockets hit, and how emotional it was, or was not. Then I spoke about out trip shortly, and then the main course was served.....

to start off, we spoke to the rabbi allot, he's amazing, just out there, and helping the fledgling Jewish life out there in middle of Florida’s Panhandle, and more specific the communities @ FSU and the surrounding Tallahassee Communities. it was nice to see him encourage any little change for the better in everybody, weather it be a mezuzah, kosher, praying thrice daily, whatever, it was just pure encouragement. The rabbi told us that he has been out in Tallahassee close to seven years, and it was a pretty nice Chabad house, on 1.5 acres of land.

Anyway just briefly about the three other people who were on that list

Tal - an Israeli, who came to FSU on a Swimming Scholarship and now Returned to get his masters in Civil Engineering

Bret - the President of Chabad @ FSU, didn’t really speak to him much, but the rabbi thanked him allot, and had much adulation for him.

Sam - an Engineer also working on his Masters @ FSU, great guy, seems to really want to get the whole Jewish thing down pat, one thing at a time.

Saturday morning Shachris was called for 10AM we got there somewhat on time, it was long but nice, like Friday night, not as many people, but we had a minyan, and that’s all that counts. Dan davend Musaf.
After davening we had lunch, and about 20 people stayed for this meal, the cholent was killer, just damn good, the rest of the food was really good also. After the meal davend Mincha while we still had a minyan. Afterwards we walked back to out hotel and went to sleep, and I finished my rolling stone magazine.
We went back to shul @ 8PM for dinner, Ma'ariv (no minyan) and Havdala. We thanked everybody for the unbelievable hospitality and we left, went back to the hotel packed up and departed for Clearwater, FL

We have another 175 miles to go as I am writing this, and here some other stats this trip has so far been 2,750 miles long, and the car's odometer is @ 99,950. we stopped for gas 14 times to fill up, 200 gallons of gas on this trip alone, the most expensive gas was on NYC $3.29 and the cheapest was in Kentucky $2.55.
Ok, going to watch some movie now,

ttyl

Mobile Bay

Wow, we got a glimpse of the Gulf, driving over Mobile Bay; it was breathtaking, can’t wait to get to the beach now. Here some pics of the USS Alabama look up its story on www.wikipedia.org

Day 10

wow this trip is starting to wind down , its been long and great, still got till Monday night to live it up....

we left New Orleans (10AM), (i miss it already). we are already in Alabama, a bit before Mobile, on our way to Tallahassee, staying at the Chabad @ FSU so i am looking forward a bit, only wish we were still in New Orleans....

i do miss home a bit, well not home... more the city, we were in cities but none as great as new york, all the nightlife, hell just the concerts for me. i have a great line up this coming month for concerts

8/30 - Piamenta (southpaw)
9/7 - Birdmonster
9/12 - Roger Water (MSG)
9/13 - Roger Waters (MSG)
9/14 - Jimmy Buffet (MSG)
9/18 - The Who (MSG)
9/20 - Kasabian (Webster Hall) [not sure i'm going being right before rosh hashona and all...]
9/26 - The Racuntuers (Roseland Ballroom)
9/28 - Tool (if i get tix)

so as you can see i am pretty excited, and have good reason to be (see above list)
college starts for me the Tuesday after Labor day so i still got one more free weekend after this. OK, here we are Mobile, were gonna stop for gas now.
ttyl

Day 9

so i did pretty much nothing today, walked around a lot, blew some cash at the casino, the house always wins, oh well....

went for a manicure, that was enjoyable. got a drink in the afternoon, kept me going till 7pm then i slept till 10. going to the gym now, then i;ll go swimming.

for the weekend, we will be in Tallahassee, it was to hard to find a place for shabbos here in New Orleans, so we're gonna skip town tomorrow morning.

ttyl

New Orleans Rocks!!!!

we got to New Orleans, to start our Hotel La Pavilion is amazing, down pillows, roof top pool, great gym! really nice, the room even has its own door bell!

now we just went to Bourbon St to see if its like they said, we went there kinda late so most of the bars and live music joints were closing up, but they have a great selection of strip clubs, and i even saw a couple of nightclubs, gotta get there early tomorrow night catch some of the music scene.

we hit up Harrah's, nice casino, great location, not too far from the hotel (6 blocks) i made $50 on blackjack and left for the night, its close to 4AM, just chekin in...

ttyl

another darn update

we finally got to Jackson went strait to the golf driving range, we had other plans to, but they were deterred (read below) so we just hit lots of golf balls for about 30 minutes, then we grilled and schmoozed up the owner, nice fellow.

Now we are on our way to the city of New Orleans, a great city that is still marred with the aftereffects of Katrina and its sister hurricanes. Can’t wait to get there though, hope i can find cheap beer, just like I found a cheap hotel, etc.

see you there....

wow, another post in Day 8

ok, so we are back at Wal-Mart again, after 4 hours they put the tire on wrong, so we had to go back after like 20 mile, and what do they do!!!! they send us to another mechanic, Mississippi is really screwed up.... so exciting.

we just arrived at the Grenada Chrysler Dealer, so great....

Day 8 still....

i have cooled down since I got made into a meal a couple hours back. And after listening to my entire Elliot Smith collection I am cool, and relaxed.

so after four excruciating hours, all to change one god damned tire we are back on the road, this is the break down of the time an hour waiting for the AAA guy, and 3 hours for the Wal-Mart people to change the tire, gotta love the people over at Wal-Mart in Bew Springs, MS.

Anyway, were headed to Jackson, and then onto New Orleans, got a great 5 star / 4 diamond place in downtown New Orleans, cant wait, a nice place to stay, again!

road trouble take 2

so we blew out a tire on I-55 so, were 4 guys we could change it and this would so not be an issue. but alas, Shragi and Aryeh do not know how to change a tire, morons. then it gets even better, I take out the jack because, i sure as hell know how to change a tire; and Dan tells me he wants to wait for AAA to come and do it, why b/c they have a power jack and it will take 5 minutes, but to wait an hour to save ten minutes makes no damn sense at all, I gave up arguing with the voice of reason Dan himself. and went to lay on the grass, listening to my iPod. it gets even worse... I get up about 10-15 minutes later, and I am bit up, apparently fire ant are all over the place, they bit up my legs, my back, and my hands, so I’m in lots of pain, oh well what can I do....

the AAA guy comes and what does he do? He takes the jack from our car and uses it, and yep i guessed it, no fucking power jack!!!! Damn it I am so ticked b/c now we waited and I got the shit bit out of, all for nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!! arrrhhhhhhh

now we for some odd reason had to go to Wal-Mart to get another tire, even though we are using a spare, i mean if it was a donut then i understand, but its a spare.... so much time wasted by pure stupidity.




:End Rant:

Day 8

were on the road again, left from Memphis on the way to Jackson, going to get a round of golf in before we hit up Bourbon st.

having trouble finding a place for shabbos in New Orleans, apparently there is this Torah dedication, the first since Katrina, and well many of the people who left after Katrina are coming in for the weekend, so all the bed and breakfasts are full, and most people's houses are full, sucks for us..... oh well cant wait to get there tonight. if anyone has any advice, please post it, thnx.

is there a chabad in Mobile?

Day 8

were on the road again, left from Memphis on the way to Jackson, going to get a round of golf in before we hit up Bourbon st.

having trouble finding a place for shabbos in New Orleans, apparently there is this Torah dedication, the first since Katrina, and well many of the people who left after Katrina are coming in for the weekend, so all the bed and breakfasts are full, and most people's houses are full, sucks for us..... oh well cant wait to get there tonight. if anyone has any advice, please post it, thnx.

is there a chabad in Mobile?

Day 8

were on the road again, left from Memphis on the way to Jackson, going to get a round of golf in before we hit up Bourbon st.

having trouble finding a place for shabbos in New Orleans, apparently there is this Torah dedication, the first since Katrina, and well many of the people who left after Katrina are coming in for the weekend, so all the bed and breakfasts are full, and most people's houses are full, sucks for us..... oh well cant wait to get there tonight. if anyone has any advice, please post it, thnx.

is there a chabad in Mobile?

Day 7 recap

Day 7:

We got to Graceland alright, pretty cool memorial, nice diggs he had there, and pretty cool life, its amazing how one man changed the world so much in 20 years.

We spent about 3 hours in the mansion, and the rest of the property, going through the house, pretty darn cool, this is the second mansion on this trip that was frozen in the 1970's.

after we left, we were planning on goin downtown, but we got sidetracke, and drove arround for three hours looking for food primarily more meat, we were runnig a bit low, and Dan and Shragi the two pessimists on this trip both figured that the meat is spoiled, and so we needed more. (btw i just had some an hour ago and it tasted fine).

Anyway, after we got food we went to Aria's and had dinner, not to cheap but really good Israeli food. we met up with two different families who were from New Orleans and relocated to Memphis after Katrina, and they were especially helpful in advising us where to go for the weekend, and who to call, people out here, (out of the tri state area) are so helpful, its unreal.

then we went to shul for mincha and Maariv, which was nice, and then they gave us a mini tour of the shul again met up with more people from new Orleans and again got more phone numbers.... but I digress, the shul was HUGE, I mean it seated a good 500 people, and had removable walls so it could easily seat 800-1000 people max.

After that we checked into the hotel, and relaxed for two hours then we went down to the infamous Beale St here in Memphis. We went into 6 or 7 different bars and all but one had live music. The one that didn’t; had $2.50 pints, so who wouldn’t go in, but the bar tender was an ass so we left after a single glass. We hung out for the bulk of the time @ Alfred’s where they had some fun karaoke; Shragi got me to go up by offering me 4 beers, which helped. I sung Sex and Candy by Marcy's Playground, it was fun, and I was not sober, so I must have done a half ass job. A good time all around, we got back @ 1:30am we all turned in early.

We leave for Jackson MS tomorrow, and then onto the Great New Orleans for the Weekend!!! ttyl

Quick Q

hey people, its been a week, just wondering why more of you don't leave comments, I'd love to hear your feedback, I'd love to hear from y'all

Mike

Day 7

ok, we finally got on the road, i slept like 4 hours last night, just was too cold too sleep, got up worked out, ate breakfast, enjoyed the silence. well were on the road to Memphis now. 200 Miles to Graceland cant wait to see the king of rock, because rumour has it, the king is alive and Rockin' !!!!



They guys sleeping away the day

Day 7

ok, we finally got on the road, i slept like 4 hours last night, just was too cold too sleep, got up worked out, ate breakfast, enjoyed the silence. well were on the road to Memphis now. 200 Miles to Graceland cant wait to see the king of rock, because rumour has it, the king is alive and Rockin' !!!!



They guys sleeping away the day

Minor Update

just one more thing, i have tons of pics, and its a real pain in the ass to upload all of em from the road, so i try my hardest to post as many as possible, but the bulk of my shots wont be posted until i get back home, so sometime over Labor Day weekend they should all be up

Michael G

Day 6

Day 6 is over, I already miss the beer sellar, but life goes on.

Today we started off by looking for the kosher restaurant in town; we found it not too far away in the nearby Vanderbilt University, inside the Hillel house. The food was interesting, it was a pure vegetarian menu, and the food tasted alright, but I don’t like paying $8 for horse feed.

After that we headed downtown, too the visitors center, and there we found out there is only one thing to do in Nashville, and that the Country Music Hall of Fame. I wanted to got, but Dan and Aryeh wanted to go to the Jack Daniels Distillery out in Lynchburg, TN, and Shragi like usual did not care. So we split up, Dan and Aryeh dropped me and shragi off at the country music hall of fame and they went off to Lynchburg. The hall of fame was interesting, just as nice as the rock hall of fame, but we the thing here was that shragi and I don’t know any country music, so all the names were new, except for Elvis. Although we didn’t know anything about country music, and we still don’t, it was fun, and worthwhile.
We went back to our hotel after this, and we waited for the others to return.

They got back at around 7:30 and we had plans to go to the Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows concert here in Nashville. the show started @ 7 so we were running late, but we were not interested in seeing the Goo Goo Doll, so we cam right on time right as the Goo Goo Dolls finished up their set. as we walked up to the box office the guy in front of us turned around and offered us a free ticket b/c he had an extra, so we got a free tik, and best of all, it was an actual seat, unlike the GA lawn seats we got, I sat in the seat, and loved it, it was pretty darn close, and awesome. The show was great, the Counting Crows rocked the house, and it was a chilled crowd.

We went back the Best Western and BBQ I am no on the way to bed.

The agenda for tomorrow is Memphis, TN.

Night 5

ok, so i found my cam, aryeh took it, its great to have a Designated driver. anyway here the pics from last night. the first is a picture of Ron, arguing his stance on the war w/ Dan and some other guy. and the second is Ron trying on my Yarmulke, great guy, its great we have supporters of Israel down in the south!!!!!

Day 6 and Night 5 !!!!

ok, i am up bright and early, and last night was great, but well i don't know how i got home, but the first two bars were great, and the Yankees won, but we went to the beer sellar (its spelled that way) well it was $13 for two pitchers and they have 50 flavors on tap, and over 150 different beers in bottles, so do you blame me for getting shitfaced? any way, funny story, so i walked into the beer sellar and this dude approaches me, the guy is in his 40's or 50's and he ask me my stances on the war, and i am pro the wars in Iraq, and the war in Lebanon, so i said that, and then we started a conversation that lasted 6 pitchers long, lol, but a real long time. it was cool, I'll post pics when i find my cam, yea it lost with the rest of my stuff i cant find from last night, cant wait for the guys to wake up and fill me in on the stupid shit that i did last night, BUT i do know i did not drink and dial, which is a first in a really long time, prob b/c i am using a diff phone with all of 3 numbers in the cell!!! hell yea, i am so proud of me!!!!! (BTW we got a pithcer of Sam Adams Boston Lager, and a pitcher of Yazoo Pale Ale, and i had a ton of whatever the guys next to me were drinkin, some great cider, no clue what it was called, but that is what sent me over the edge)

well we got the country music hall of fame today here in Nashville, TN, so gtg, wake the guys, ttyl

Nashville, TN

Got to Nashville alright staying at the Best Western Music row, nice place, really nice city, gonna head out now for some beer, ttyl.

Day 5, KY State Fair

Hey, today was the greatest yet. Day 5 was well an experience.

We got up early today, no complimentary breakfast at the Holiday inn here in Louisville, KY. But it was 12 floors and pretty big, a nice surprise, Louisville, was bigger the other cities we’ve been in so far.
So we had two things on the agenda for Louisville, the bat factory, and the Kentucky state fair. But the bat factory was kind of closed so we skipped it. We went strait to the fair, it was well amazing, and we started off walking to a lumberjack contest, real cool, log chopping, ax throwing, wood sawing, and a lot more. After that we went to a pig race, so much fun. The announcer was a real hick, and talking so fast he was impossible to understand. Next they had a BMX and skateboard show on a mini half pipe, real great, just look at the pics.

After the shows we went to look around @ all the exhibits. We started at the homemade brew and wine contest, then on to the best antique show. Then the art section. then I got into a debate with a really nice DEA agent about why Marijuana should be legal and how you shouldn’t be arrested if you are pulled over and have it on your persons if you are not under the influence, wow it was fun, he gave me some real oddball look. Then on to the art exhibit, some really great stuff there, all homemade. after that we went to the flea market, wow people are really interested in the dumbest of things, just a bunch of oddballs buying crap that nobody needs, lots of hot tub sales people, the most interesting stand was the www.customcaskets.com stand, where I just had to ask the sales lady what she recommended for me, and she said since I’m Jewish they have a plain pinewood boxes, but I was just laughing who the hell goes to a state fair to buy a coffin? I was ROTFLMAO.
Ok we left the flea market, and got a beer in one of the music tents, some country music band was playing, wasn’t half bad. Better then the bad punk metal that they had playing in the other tents; playing really bad G&R covers.
After the drinks, we went to the dairy cow exhibit, never saw so many cows, and wow tons of shit all over the place. but really cool to see all the different types of dairy cows, and the most awkward is that the owners need to sleep with the cows on the fair grounds, till the competition is over, and that was @ 4pm today, they were there since August 17th, the beginning of the fair.
Anyway, after the cows we went to the mule hut, lots of donkeys and mules there, again a really bad stench. we left rather quickly, and went on to the chicken and cock exhibit, mad cool (see pics) then there were pigeons, rabbits, dairy goats, and bee hives/ honey, all of these are things never seen in NYC. so great, and the people here are so freaken nice, I mean they apologize for being in your way, or stepping on your foot, so cool. Ok I got tired of the animals and aryeh wanted to go see the flapjack flipping contests, which ended up being a real lame. So aryeh caught some shut eye. I went to Six Flags Kentucky, which was right next to the fair grounds, and admission to the Six Flags is included in the $7 admission into the fair! but the rides are pay per ride, but its still pretty cheap, me shragi and Dan, went, there were 6 coaster, but the Chang was closed, and the raptor was lame, so I went on the Twisted Twins before Dan and shragi met up with me, and it was lame, then we went on the Thunder Run, a great wooden roller coaster, I went on it twice. Then we went on to the T2 which is a metal coaster, which cost $5 but worth it, me and shragi sat front row, and it was great, no pics though, too hard to snap em. so we did the best rides in Six Flags for $10 and the best thing was there were NO LINES, I mean when I went in Thunder Run the first time, I was the only one on the train!!!!, and when me and shragi waited for T2, we waited 10 minutes because we wanted the first row. we are really tired, so we skipped out on the Oak Ridge Boys concert, and we Grilled up in the parking lot, and now we are on the road to Nashville, TN, and the greatest part about the four hour drive down there is that we gain an hour by getting into the central time zone! Oh well gotta get some sleep on this drive, see ya'll in Nashville!