chillin in Charleston

Good heavens, this town is amazing! And we haven't actually seen anything because we arrived to Cameron's house at 10:30pm. But oh em gee, Cam's casa is INCREDIBLE. This place is two stories with a true Southern, Charleston-style porch on each floor. Don't even get me started on the kitchen. I'm in love.

But this blog obvi isn't about Cam's amazing house (though I'm clearly obsessed). It's about an epic journey. A journey of two souls. Two souls bonded by a life-changing mission that could alter the future of all the beings of Middle Earth. Mmm, wait. No, I'm thinking about a Hobbit Blog I was just reading. Scratch that! This is all about the 2010 Epic Road Trip of Pete and Eva (2ERTPE).

I probably won't write a novel tonight because this is our first evening of relaxation since we got on the road Saturday morning and some brownies are fixin to come out the oven. You understand. So, Saturday we made our way--albeit slowly--into the Buick after a rather activity-filled last night in Austin.  The day was perfection: Texas blue skies as we headed out with a few white clouds. We departed with a general idea of where we'd like to land that night (Louisiana? or maybe Mississippi?? meh?). We're not taking any interstates on this trip, so we drove through practically empty back roads East out of Texas and through central Louisiana.

We've been putting the B to good use and have been making stops at groovy pull-offs to throw it around and stretch our legs some. Pete is getting baller at sick flying squirrel-type catches and I'm getting close to being able to jump more than an inch off the ground to catch the frisbee. We pulled off to make dank-ass sammies at a sweet little park somewhere in Louisiana the first day. We heard gunshots from across the highway and I was decently certain that we were being hunted in one of those sick human-hunting games but Pete ascertained that it was just a shooting range across the way. Luckily we survived.

We ended up in the delightful little town of Jonesville at the refined local motel known as the Motel. Dug it: King-sized bed. Mini-fridge. Microwave. Very unique, multi-colored floral bedspread with strange toilet-paper-like bottom layer. I mean this place was the bomb. No, it really was. Henry--the kind fella who worked the Motel--told us of a look out spot wheres you can just sit back and enjoy- or something like that. We drove up thataway the next morning and ate some yogurt with granola and bananas (hippies!) then set off.

Sunday was an AMAZING drive. We drove northeast up through Mississippi on the Natchez Trace Parkway, which just winds up through this incredibly green, pristine national park. If ever you're making a drive though Mississippi, take this route. It was ridiculous.

Once we'd made our way into Alabama (our plan was to arrive to Atlanta Sunday night and stay there) we realized that it was dark and we were still hours from Georgia. So after sniffing out a national forest in northern Alabama--the William B. Bankhead National Forest--we decided to just stay there for the night and camp. But then there was the issue of finding an ENTRANCE to the forest to camp. This was tricky. But Pete and I have some pretty sweet Trip Mojo going on and of course we found a spot RIGHT on Smith Lake where practically no one else was camping. And here begins the story of the Incredibly Ballsy Racoon that Tried to Eat our Campsite. But I'm sleepy and the brownies are done. So the story will have to wait.

Buenas noches, everybody! Tomorrow I get to wake up in Charleston, SC, ride bikes all over town and frolic on the beach with Pete and Cam. Standard.

-Eva Jane

PS I guess this was a novel, eh?