Nashville, TN

Although the staff was really really nice, the cost was cheap, and it was really close to the airport, I wouldn’t recommend the Crossland Hotel in Nashville. As soon as I lay down on the bed, I was itchy. Bedbugs!!!!! Bleh!

If you’re in Austin, there’s a lot going on downtown. 6th Street is known for its bars and Esther’s Follies.

I ran around the State Capitol the other day, and that’s free. It is a great piece of architecture, and my feet tingle when I stand up on the top tier looking down onto the 6 emblems of Texas below the cupola. Texas has 6 flags, one for each country it has been under. Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States, and the Confederate States. These 6 flags are what all those amusement parks are named after.

There’s some gorgeous gory paintings inside the Texas State Senate Meeting Room. Dark paintings that look like they could use a bath and some cheer. One is of the Alamo.

The state capitol building is gorgeous inside and out.

Downtown Austin from the steps of the capitol building.

The Colorado River winds through Austin.

Jason and I also went downtown to the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar on the corner of Nueces and 3rd Street. It only costs $3 (as opposed to $5) if you get in before 7 PM. Austin is known for its live music, and there was a band called Hot Club of Cowtown playing, but we didn’t get time to hear them, as my feet were killing me. (Cowtown is another name for Fort Worth.) Great crafts. Gorgeous stuff!

Copper flim-flam robots, beautiful beaded jewelry, and a gorgeous painting of Minna — the Middle Eastern goddess of fate. Unfortunately she costs $3000, otherwise I’d be heading to the post office this morning to ship her home.

There was also this one booth filled with the coolest plastic monsters, that were sort of a combination of Jim Henson and Hieronymous Bosch.

Austin has its own names for all the highways that run through it. For example Highway 1 is not usually called “Highway 1.” It’s called “MoPac.” I’m told that MoPac stands for Missouri-Pacific, which is the name of the railroad that runs parallel to it. There’s also the Ben White (Hwy 71) and the Capitol of Texas (Hwy 360). Hell! Who needs numbers!

Houston, TX

From the air, Houston is flat and currently brown. As you approach the Hobby Int’l Airport, you fly over lots of mobile homes with scads of junky cars and car pieces strewn about their yards. A couple of Jeff Foxworthy jokes come to mind. What’s odd is many people in the suburbs have a swimming pool in their backyard. What’s wrong with the ocean? Is it that far? Or too full of industrial pollution and cargo liners that might squash you?

Austin, TX

Austin is a lot greener. More trees. If you are on a budget and don’t want to rent a car call (512) BLUE-VAN and they will take you to and from your hotel for <$20/roundtrip (pre-scheduled return trip).

On the way to the hotel, I got a quick introduction to the current state of Austin. The shuttle bus driver explains that Austin is at the center of three terrains. To the north is “rich black dirt.” Good farming soil. To the west is a hilly area, which our shuttle driver likened to “Virginia.” New luxury resorts are being built in this area all the time. Unfortunately, the ground is actually a thick bed of rock, so any construction involves blasting the rock. Also, dirt is exported from the “rich black” north and used for landscaping in the west. The area north of Austin used to be expensive land because of agriculture, but now the land to the west is more expensive because of the resorts. It’s always nice to know people got their priorities straight. To the east of Austin is an area that a “glacier carved out.” This area is full of pines.

My ex-boyfriend picked me up at the hotel (Doubletree Club Hotel near MLK and 15th St.) and we drove around the state capitol. I got some gorgeous pictures of the inside of the capitol building, and some pictures of the tower from which some guy sniper-shot a bunch of college students in the age of “peace and free love.”

Austin has a lot of funky bars. Not my thing. It’s way too college-towny for my taste.

Free internet access at the Doubletree Club Hotel. The hotel smells strange too. Not bad. Just strange.

Jason didn’t know what those bells were for.

Sunday, I landed in a green and lush place.  Rented a silver Ford Focus and enjoyed “progressive” music on 100.1 to a British-sounding DJ.  I drove up a mountain named after an eagle, and down into an enchanted valley that had a wide blue river running through it.

The people in the valley were incredibly nice.  The town was clean and safe to walk in at night.  The food was great!  There were bridges everywhere and I walked a half-mile of one of them to a school for wood carvers where I rode on a tiger.  Next to the river is a huge freshwater aquarium.  Boats and kayaks traverse locks to get down the river to where they can watch ballgames in the neighboring city.  There were three battles fought over this city a little over a century ago.

What a wonderful hidden gem!  I would love to live there.

Interstate-74

If you are driving anywhere on I-74 in Illinois or Indiana, please be very careful. It’s VERY slippery and snowy and there are cars all along the sides of the road because they still think they can go 65 mph, and brake well enough when someone comes down an on-ramp in front of them.

Bridges are also slick with ice.

Illinois is kind of misguided. They decided to melt the snow/ice with salt. The problem is, the salt just gets diluted with the falling snow, and then the melted snow/ice just refreezes and makes it even slicker than before. So drive carefully in Illinois.

Indianapolis Airport

I always find the Indianapolis Airport to be very easy to navigate. There are multiple long-term parking lots ranging from $7.00 to $4.50/night. The cheaper they are, the farther from the airport. The good thing is there are shuttles to all the parking lots, so as long as you arrive at the airport in good time, it should be no trouble to park in the cheaper lot. (I was rushed, so I parked in the Tiger Lot which is $7.00/day. Durn.)

If you park in the long-term parking lots, definitely take the shuttle over walking to the terminal, because there are some funky roads between the parking lots and the terminal where you will be playing Frogger. That isn’t so bad, except if you have luggage with you it’s kind of difficult.

Indiana is a funky state. If you’re driving in from another state, make sure you know whether or not other places are on Daylight Savings Time, because Indianapolis wants to be different and doesn’t do Daylight Savings Time. Currently, the time in Indianapolis matches Eastern time. (i.e. currently one hour ahead of Chicago/Central time)

Some people don’t like Indy’s airport. I don’t know why. I’ve always had good experiences there. I’ve missed flights and the clerks at the front counters always do their best to reschedule me on the earliest possible next flight.

I’ve accidentally locked myself out of my car, too. And the nice lady at the information desk called Indiana’s Finest Lockout. Although IFL was hella expensive, they were quick (which is more than I can say for the guys I had to call in my hometown, once). And when you’re waiting in the snow with luggage (or sweltering in the summer humidity), quickness is a good thing.

The food at the Indy airport isn’t great. And it is expensive. I bought a chicken Italian sausage sandwich (+ fries + drink) for a whopping $7.48. (It isn’t as expensive as Cleveland Hopkins Int’l though.)

Chicago Midway Airport

I’d never been to Chicago Midway before, and it was pretty nice. It wasn’t nearly as frantic as O’Hare. Unlike O’Hare, Midway has moving sidewalks which are a boon when you are trying to get from one end of the terminal to the other.

The clerks at Midway were also very nice. The people flying out of Chicago, on the otherhand, are obnoxious. I had to listen to some god-damned yuppie-types complaining the whole time we were standing in line to get on the plane. It was as if I were in an episode of “Seinfeld.” I finally got out of line because they were so annoying. (Their tactic worked.) I hope their next plane crashed.

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

I missed a flight here too, and the lady at the Southwest counter was so great! She set me up with a shuttle to the Hilton Garden Inn, and Ozzie came and picked me up. Ozzie gave me a great tour of the area around Cleveland Hopkins Int’l Airport, which is basically a Ford Motors area.

If you get stuck at Cleveland Hopkins Int’l Airport, I highly recommend the Hilton Garden Inn. If you’re flying via Southwest, mention that, and they give you a discounted rate ($39.99), which totally rocked because this hotel is really nice. I mean really nice. Fireplace in the lobby. Really personable staff. And DOWN PILLOWS. Squishy down pillows! I love them. . . .

And one of Ohio’s MetroParks is in the backyard of the hotel, with the nearby Rocky River that runs through it. I didn’t get a chance to go hiking though.

The other nice thing about the hotel is the free shuttle service (via Ozzie) to the big nearby mall where I was able to find a nice business suit in my size (petite) at the Dillard’s. And that is rare.

I made sure to give Ozzie a tip, because he has a soft spot for the homeless guys who hang out around the airport.

Rental cars at Cleveland Hopkins are fairly easy. They are all located in one place, which you reach by shuttle. The signs for Car Rental Return were a little difficult to find. I came back via I-71 North and got out at the first airport exit. It took a while to find the car rental return signs. I probably would have done better taking the second exit.

If you are planning a rush trip, it takes the shuttle about 10 minutes to get from the main terminal to the car rental place.

Food choices at the Hopkins Airport suck. I got a teeny tiny roast beef sandwich with a Coke for a whopping $9.00. Bleh.

Ohio Turnpike

The Ohio Turnpike is nice. The toll wasn’t bad either. From Youngstown to the I-71 exit, it only cost me $2.20, if I remember rightly.

Akron, Ohio

Akron is basically a GOODYEAR town.

I had a flat tire in Akron on Market Street. A nice guy named Reggie who was on probation helped me put the donut on. And another nice guy named Carver lent me his good jack. He also told me where I could get my tire fixed. The nice guys at ACTION TIRE showed me the flat-head screw I somehow ran over, and they stuck a plug in for $7.47, and they did it in less than 10 minutes!

The Radisson Hotel in downtown Akron was okay. There was a jacuzzi in my room, but I didn’t feel up to trying it out. Oh, and the bathtub drain wouldn’t stay open, which kind of sucked. So I had to pull out the mechanism in order to take shower. And it seems someone with very long red hair stayed in that hotel room once. The heater didn’t work in my room either. That sucked.

Piatta’s is a fabulous Italian restaurant in downtown Akron. The proleterioles are really good!

Youngstown, OH

Youngstown is basically a General Motors town.

Boardman, OH

The Microtel in Boardman, Ohio smells kinda like plastic. It’s a lot cleaner than the Radisson in downtown Akron, OH though.

The rooms are “micro.” I wish they’d just accept that, and not have that funky tinted mirror over the bed to try to make it look bigger. ‘Makes me feel like I’m being watched. . . .

The Springfield Grille in Boardman is excellent! There was a waiter there who was so incredibly great. I wish I’d gotten his name. If you go there and he is your server, you’ll know what I mean. He’s also cute too. The angel hair marinara there rocks, and the tiramisu is good. They put a thick layer of chocolate powder on top, so don’t inhale as you take a bite or you’ll choke, as my tablemate did.

“Then show us some,” we countered. . . .

. . . In spite of our youthful naivete and rashness, everything worked out. Was that due to our sheer bullheadedness or were we being guided in some way? It sounds odd even as I write it, but from the time we met Tony Turner I felt that a force beyond us was lending a hand and deciding the timing of every step. I’m not saying things happened like magic; we had to work for them. But everything fell into place with such simplicity when the time was right that it seemed we weren’t being allowed to rush, that we were held back until Usikusiku was modified for us and we were competent to sail on our own. If we’d gotten that longed-for sponsorship, if a sugar-daddy company had stepped in to pay off our debts and shower us with gear, we might have left South Africa before we were knowledgeable enough and mature enough to succeed. We needed that time to grow and strengthen, both physically and mentally. . . .