No time, no day, just the sun and the ocean

I have been back from my road trip for a few weeks now and I am sure that I can no longer work on a schedule. First, our plans for the trip changed the day before we left. Yes, that is right, a few short hours before we departed on the wide open highways, we decided to no longer go to snowy North Carolina but to sunny and warm Florida instead. We still wanted to hit up some crazy awesome pretty roads so we took the long way. But we had a few issues.
1) We had only 3 brakes. One was being a pain so we evicted it the day before we left.
2) The tire blew 5 hours into the trip.

Luckily, we were only a few feet from a store that had tires so we trucked on over there and were told that they had the tire in stock. Well, they lied. The had the size bigger. So lets do a recap.

-3 brakes
-3 good tires
-1 too big tire

Ok, we are all together now. So we trucked on and then there was an AWFUL rumbling. It sounded like the engine had a stomach ache and that someone put a mega phone to it. It was so loud that it could be heard over the radio. This deserves a recap

-3 brakes
-3 good tires
-1 too big tire
-1 knocking engine

So we stopped for the night and were planning on heading back. The next morning, we simply got an oil change and, tada!, it was all better. So we trucked to south of Atlanta where we stayed with my cousin and then went to Florida!

We started on the panhandle at St. George's island, this awesome white sand island in the gulf. Then we went on over to St. Joesph's peninsula, which was by far the prettiest. But we learned quickly that just because it is 75 or so during the day does not mean that it is not going to be freezing at night. It was seriously 30 degrees out and we were not prepared. And, because we were in the sticks, there was NO WHERE to get warm clothes or food that wasn't pb&j (what we had for about 4 days or so).

After all the saints, we went to visit Jason's (by boyfriend and fellow road tripper) uncle in Venice. This, my dear friends, is the Mecca for old people. This is there mothership, their pre-death cemetery, if you will. They love this place. And they are all tan. Even their wrinkles are tan. After making fun of old people, seeing Watchmen, and sleeping on a bed for a whole 2 nights, we decided to head over to Disney! But, this was not without a few glitches. First, at the camp we were staying at, the BEARS WERE ACTIVE! Not even kidding. They had pictures and everything. Then, the night before Disney, we got in a very literal fender bender. We bent the right fender.
So, in case you forgot:
-3 brakes
-3 good tires
-1 too big tire
-1 knocking engine (somewhat fixed)
-1 bent right fender

But that didn't stop us.

I work for Radio Disney Chicago so I got some tickets mailed down and we two twenty something year olds acted like a bunch of little kids in Disney. We took pictures and frolicked and everything!

They day after, we took the long 18 hr drive back home. For 10 days we did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. We spent every second together, literately next to each other non-stop, and it rarely became an issue. A simple 2 week break felt like summer break, a good long break. Nothing mattered. Being back on a schedule is AWFUL! Terrible in every way possible. I have never hated school more than I do right now. I feel like a hippie mad at the man for bringing him down. I hate that I have to check the time, all the time. I can not right to not bother with time again. Soon enough, my friends. Then you will have another long post.

Love,
Lilia

The day we left for the trip Some pretty moutnains

an old tan man at Veniceour tightly packed Miata At the Florida border!

Your typical artsy road trip...

So I think I am an artsy girl.

I read, I write, I draw, I finger paint, I wear stuff from thrift stores.

What artsy life would be complete without at least one random road trip to nowhere? So next Friday, I will fulfill my artsy destiny, hop into an increasingly shrinking Miata and make an epic drive through Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina as I scribble in my little black writing journal about a hopefully sunny and warm drive through the mountains. I have visions of me, with my awesome teal suede jacket, my fantastic sunglasses with artsy metal work on the side that I got for $2 at the popcorn fest (best find ever!), and my freshly curled hair whipping around in the breeze as I enjoy a windy drive through the mountains, the sun warming the top of black hair. Kind of like Easy Rider but with out the motorcycles or the LSD or Jack Nicholson or the tragic ending.

Too bad it is February and the only thing warm in February is the inside of a heated house.

And since I am hoping that mother nature isn't a total bitch, we are camping most of the way as well.

But perhaps the most thrilling aspect of the trip is that we really do not have a destination; we are driving for the sake of driving. I am thrilled to yet again be surrounded by mountains, heaping and on edge, as if their peaks will tip right into our car. I miss the trees and the smells of the mountains that I was submerged in most of this summer when I spent a month in Oregon. I miss looking up in the sky and seeing every single star that is visible. This road trip will be partly to get all of that back and partly to see if I am capable of being on the road, since I hope to go on a few of these for my writing.

And so I will depart on my Jack Kerouac, Merry Pranksters-esq road trip but with less drugs and fewer prostitutes.

Be prepared for an epic post once I return...