The Sweetest Place on Earth

My apologies for the lack of posts in the last few days, but we arrived at our destination Monday evening and have been busy trying to get settled ever since. 

We've been staying in Harrisburg, PA, the nearest 'major' center (pop. 50,000) to Joe's new home base of Hershey. My last encounter with Harrisburg involved 3 hours spent waiting for a bus in a mall parking lot. (Okay, to be fair, two and a half of those were spent in the Starbucks across the street). Having taken some time to get to know the place over the last couple days, I've decided it's not so bad. The downtown is small, but nice enough, there is a beautiful stretch of enormous old houses along the Susquehanna River and a walking path to go with them. We've so far found delicious tacos, a great little Vietnamese place, and a Venezuelan Arepa restaurant downtown serving up some seriously tasty food, so I'm satisfied. Hershey itself doesn't have quite as much to offer, with a population of only around 12,000, but it's quaint and quiet and it's home to a chocolate-themed amusement park, which I'm sure I'll be visiting on my next trip. 

We spent most of Tuesday looking for accommodations in the Hershey area, and we found a great little apartment in Palmyra (about 10 minutes from the medical center). Last night we got word that it's ours (by 'ours' I mean Joe's) and we're hoping to be in by tomorrow night. I'll hopefully be spending the next couple days stocking up on essentials and filling the freezer before we head to Stony Brook on Monday to start our second hunt for housing, this time for me.

And so it seems, our adventure is almost done. This will most likely be my last post for this trip, with the exception of a couple videos that I may or may not get done. Hope you all enjoyed hearing about my little journey. I had a blast. Until next time.

Trying to outrun the weather

A little taste of the weather during the second half of our trip.

Peaches

Ever since Georgia, we wished that this would come on the radio...

Well, I finally got behind on my blogging, but I did pretty well for a while, didn't I? And now, as is always the case with getting caught up on travel blogs, I have sooo much to tell - and, of course, so little time right now.

I last wrote from a lovely little table overlooking the pool at our NOLA hotel, but sadly, you're all going to have to wait a while longer for that New Orleans post. We left the next morning, bright and early, and headed to Atlanta. I'd been pretty excited for my drive along the Gulf Coast, but we hit rain early on. Soon enough, we stumbled upon a weather warning on the radio calling for storms, heavy rains, and flooding all the way from Lake Charles, LA to Mobile, AL - basically our route for the next few hundred miles. Slightly on edge, we decided not to stop until we turned north at Mobile and headed away from the water. It poured buckets all the way through Mississippi, to Mobile, and beyond, so I unfortunately didn't get to enjoy much of that leg of the trip. Instead, it was spent clutching the handle above my door and sporadically trying to record what was going on. (I'll try to edit a quick video to add to this post sometime in the next couple days.)

We finally drove out of the rain sometime north of Mobile, and happily stopped off at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. It's a small museum with an audio/visual exhibit that guides you all the way through in about 30-40 minutes, taking you through the Montgomery Bus Boycott step-by-step. We finished around 3 pm and carried on our way to Atlanta, where we encountered the only major hiccup of our trip so far: the Atlanta freeway. What a nightmare. Tired, hungry, and indecisive, we made a poor dinner choice (mediocre Vietnamese food) and then headed out to the Fulton Inn in the west of the city, where we had a coupon for $30 accommodations. There was a reason it cost $30. We decided it was worth saving the cost of a tank of gas (rooms in Atlanta aren't cheap), and fell asleep to the sound of the motel owner outside threatening to call the cops on someone. To be honest, this was the sort of accommodation I'd been expecting more of along the way, so it was all good. The truck was still there in the morning.

Although we'd cursed it repeatedly, Atlanta redeemed itself the next morning when we stopped off at one of the best coffee shops I've ever set foot in. Octane is close to the MLK Center (our first destination of the day) and also houses the Little Tart Bakery. I watched them prepare slow-drip coffees by filtering the grounds over individual cups as I dug into the best ham and cheese croissant I've ever eaten - and I've eaten A LOT of ham and cheese croissants. The ambiance was fantastic, the latte was heavenly, and the croissant left a film of butter on my plate when I was done. We ordered up two more for the road, happy that we wouldn't have to stop for lunch.

After indulging ourselves, we hopped a couple blocks over to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. The exhibit area inside was incredibly well done, with six themed enclaves featuring video, text, and photos that walk you through King's political beginnings as the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott up to his death and its aftermath. It was incredibly powerful and I choked back tears more than once. We went outside to see his tomb, huddled under the umbrella to take photos in the morning drizzle.

We left Atlanta determined to get back, as it seems like a city with some character, worthy of much more exploration. We had still yet to find a Georgia peach, however, as it was my mission to determine whether Georgia peaches were better than Okanagan peaches - a fact of which I was seriously in doubt. And I still am, since it seems the peaches are behind schedule this year and I never managed to sink my teeth into one. In pursuit of this goal, however, we stopped off at the Buford Highway Farmers' Market, which it turned out was not an outdoor market but was actually a giant grocery store that was well worth the stop. This place had the most amazing selection of produce I've ever seen! Eight different varieties of banana, every kind of pepper you've ever seen, nopal, mangosteens, guayaba - you name it. I was in vegetable heaven and Joe was equally impressed. We rounded the corner to find an enormous seafood counter, with people lined up for all kinds of catfish, prawns, snapper, shellfish. We sampled quesadillas in the large Mexican section and gyoza dumplings in the equally large Asian section before we forced ourselves to leave with nothing more than a six-pack of water, some OJ, and a bag of limon peanuts that I couldn't pass up.

One outlet mall and a couple of elusive Georgia postcards later, and we arrived in Durham, NC for a visit with Joe's friends Chris and Tanya. They took us to a great little place serving up southern food in Chapel Hill where I finally got my hands on some fried chicken, along with cornbread, string beans, baked apples and a basket of hush puppies. It did not disappoint. We followed up dinner with a trip to the local wine bar where we engaged in a lengthy discussion of dreams and their value, inspired by my set of Klosterman's insane question cards. Chris and Tanya are delightful and it was nice to be in good company for the evening.

Now we're headed out for breakfast before the last leg of our trip: Durham to Hershey, with a quick stop in DC. I can't believe it's almost over!

The Ultimate Donut Experience

Here's a little vid of what happened the morning we left Austin. 

Enjoying the cool of early morning New Orleans

I didn't have the steam to post last night, but I think it's worked in my favour, as I sit at a little wrought iron table overlooking the pool on a balmy morning in New Orleans. We awoke early to the sound of rain this morning and decided we'd just have to make the best of it, but it seems the sound of rain is just a quirk of our hotel.

Speaking of the hotel, we really lucked out with this one. We're staying right in the French Quarter at the New Orleans Courtyard Hotel. It's a little character building with incredibly friendly staff, a very nice pool and a bedroom floor that is noticeably unlevel. They also had real creamer for my coffee this morning - none of that powdered death or flavoured stuff in plastic packs. The place has charm and the location can't be beat, so I'm happy.

I wasn't surprised to wake up to what I thought was the sound of rain this morning after the storm we got stuck in yesterday. Just before Baton Rouge we drove into a black, black sky torn by lightening that quickly turned into buckets of rain like I've never seen. Drivers turned on their blinkers, we all slowed to 30 miles/hour, and we began to hope for an exit with a motel. We were able to drive out of it before we found one, however, and I'm glad. We made it to New Orleans by 8 pm - only half an hour behind schedule - and were all settled in, on the hunt for food by 8:30. We only had to walk five blocks to find an amazing little deli where we ordered up two enormous, delicious sandwiches - much more than we needed, as we soon found out - and were delighted to discover that you can buy beer here by the bottle. A mix-and-match six-pack of local brews in hand, and we were on our way home.

Why, you may ask, did we opt to eat in on one of only two nights in this amazing city? Because we drove for ten hours yesterday, that's why. The morning started out with a repeat trip to Izzoz tacos for breakfast. Due to our limited taco time, however, we decided to forgo their large selection of breakfast tacos and go for the real thing: a tempura shrimp torta and two tacos (blackened tilapia and braised beef). Joe followed this up with the most ridiculous donut I've ever seen. When we first saw Gourdough's the day before, we knew it had to be done - it was only a matter of when. Imagine a donut with a 5-6 inch diameter, stuffed with brownie batter and topped with a combination of peanut butter, peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and some sort of peanut-buttery glaze. Sounds like breakfast, right? I will admit, the two bites I ate were delicious and surprisingly, didn't send me straight into a diabetic coma.

We headed out shortly thereafter and stopped for lunch in Houston at Gatlin's BBQ, where the barbeque far outdid the stuff of the BBQ Heaven truck the night before. Another three meat plate of brisket, pulled pork and ribs and we left satisfied. From there, we drove and drove and drove. Oh, and I kicked Joe's ass at our favourite road game: scanning the radio stations and racing to identify the artist of every English-language, non-country song. Just an observation: there is an astonishing quantity of Christian radio between Texas and New Orleans. Also, Joe's ability to immediately identify God rock is impressive. Some of it is very deceptive.

Now I must depart, as it's time to stroll down to Cafe Dumond for breakfast. Then we'll tour the French Quarter before we catch a street car to the Garden District where I plan to wander the streets and explore the cemeteries for hours. I apologize for the shortage of pics with this post, but I promise there will be many more to come after today. I also have donut video to edit whenever I find the time.

Greetings from Austin

So, our day in Austin got off to a late start. As you may have already read, we left Ozona shortly after 9 am, anticipating a 3 hour drive. This would likely have been accurate, but as it turns out, Texas hill country is beautiful and we kept pulling over so I could take pics. 3 hours turned into 4, but it was totally worth it. 230ish miles, one basket of peaches, and a serving of homemade peach ice cream later, and we rolled into Austin.

Our first stop was Torchy's tacos, which sits in a dirt lot with 2 other carts. This seems to be common in Austin:  old, empty lots have now become something like food courts, as 3 or 4 trucks team up and some even offer free wifi. Torchy's was pretty damn good, but when we walked up the street and found Izzod's taco truck, I have to say it may have been even better. Initially we were headed to the JMueller BBQ truck across the street, but, sadly, they had sold out maybe 10 minutes before we arrived. That one tempura shrimp taco I ate at Izzod's may have been the single most delicious thing I ate all day.

After tracking down our motel, we headed back out for the evening. The first stop was BBQ Heaven, for our first full plate of Texas BBQ. The pulled pork was delicious and the brisket was good, but the ribs left a little to be desired. Not to worry though - we've decided to stop for BBQ lunch in Houston tomorrow. We still have a lot of Texas left to cover and ample time for more brisket.

We decided to walk off our BBQ with a wander down 6th Street, Austin's live music hub. We tried 2 different bars with 2 very different bands before we found our spot on the 3rd try. Although the Austin Amber Ale we tried at the last bar unfortunately left something to be desired, the shaved ice/soft serve combo we picked up in between was a nice end to a day of culinary adventures.

On a side note, the day brought two rather odd (food un-related) highlights: The first happened when we pulled into what we thought would be a Bank of America drive-through ATM. Instead we found a number of stalls outfitted with pneumatic tubes. As soon as we pulled up and began to scratch our heads in confusion, a voice came over the intercom telling Joe to put his bank card and ID in the tube. After receiving the cards, the tube was sent back with a withdrawal slip, which was then exchanged for the returned cards and cash. Throughout the whole experience, I couldn't help wondering how this could be in any way more efficient than an ATM. Why? Just ... why? The second highlight of the day occurred as we sat on a curb in downtown Austin eating our shaved ice. Directly in front of us, a large motorcycle pulled up to the red light, driven by your standard big, burly biker dude. All of this would be totally normal, except he was blasting reggaeton on his bike. Oh Austin, I think I could love you.

A little behind schedule, but probably better for it

Why hello there. I'm writing to you from beautiful (?) Ozona, TX where we crashed after 12 hours of driving on very little sleep. Then we slept through our 5 am alarm after tossing and turning for most of the night to that point and it's now 9 am (TX time, which I suppose means we aren't really that late). Despite missing our morning in Austin, I'm happy to have a well-rested driver. Joe's now outside doing all the hard work (packing the car and doing mechanical stuff) while I drink a cup of coffee and write a blog post. Life is tough.

Okay, so the aim was a little off,
but you get the idea.

Yesterday morning we left Tucson at 6 am and meandered our way through New Mexico and into Texas, stopping off for food, gas and the occasional photo op. I have to say, there is a whole lot of nothing in west Texas. After hours of flat, dry landscape with few signs of life, the scenery changed into rolling hills with red and green shrubs that was quite pretty. We seem to be in the middle of this, so I expect some more this morning. We have 2-3 more hours until we hit Austin, so we should be there just in time for our extended lunch. By 'extended' I mean that we intend to start eating street food as soon as we get there and continue until dinner time. This does not bode well for the amount of BBQ I would like to eat, but I assure you that I will put forth a valiant effort and make Joe eat everything I cannot.

Cacti and popsicles

Lovers or fighters?

My first full day in Tucson turned out to be a resounding success: I ate good food, had fun catching up with Shayna, and managed to avoid a sunburn despite spending most of the day outside in the Arizona sun.

We followed up our breakfast with a trip to the botanical gardens, which were a little short on flowers (not surprising, given the hundred degree temp), but did have some rather impressive cacti. We stopped off at the Circle K afterwards, where I was thrilled to find coconut popsicles and reminded of just how close we are to Mexico. For the record, that popsicle was amazing and I'm going for a repeat today. 

Next we headed out to the San Xavier Mission, a Catholic mission just outside the city that was founded in 1692. The highlight was, of course, the church that was built a hundred years later. Gathered outside the church was a row of vendors, which Shayna claimed would have fresh tamales - half the reason for our trip. As it turned out, there was not a tamale in sight, BUT instead each and every vendor was there selling Indian fry bread. Upon ordering up a serving, my suspicions were confirmed: it was bannock! I find the continuity here interesting, as I inquired about bannock during my time in eastern Canada and generally received only confusion in return. It seems as though a cultural tradition that doesn't pass west to east instead moves north to south, which I suppose isn't that surprising, as it is often the case in BC.

Although the fry bread was delicious, it was not sufficient to fill Shayna's need for protein. I decided that since I'm in the US of A, it was time for a burger. We headed to Zinburger for an early dinner and discovered that this meant happy hour - which included 2 for 1 appies.  The excitement this inspired was probably irrational, as we ordered up a couple burgers, a BLT salad, truffle fries and zucchini fries - all of which Shayna assured me would get eaten. Sadly, they did not, but we made a solid effort. Full to the point of discomfort, we attempted to work off our dinner with a walking tour of downtown Tucson. Highlights: The Hotel Congress, where John Dillinger was killed, and a statue of Pancho Villa, which was presented as a gift to the city of Tucson by Mexican president Lopez-Portillo in 1981. I couldn't help pondering the Mexican sense of humour at this particular gift.

It's now Day 2, and I'm contemplating coffee and a late breakfast as I await the arrival of Dr. Nguyen this afternoon. Our plans after that consist of a trip to Tucson's famous El Guero Canelo for Sonoran hot dogs (yes, I'm going to eat a hot dog) and dinner and drinks with the lovely Kelley Merriam Castro. This will hopefully be followed by a good night's sleep before we hit the road at 5 am tomorrow morning. Dragging me out of bed at such a godforsaken hour will surely be a test of Joe's determination. I trust he's up to the task. 

2 for 1 gringa day, este domingo!

Touched down in Phoenix last night at 6 pm - and 41 degrees celsius. I managed to catch the 6:30 shuttle to Tucson and arrived an hour early without so much as a hiccup. So far, so good on the travel front.

"Mmmmm, Canadian bacon!"

After sleeping in this morning, Shayna and I made our way to the B Line Cafe for a stack of crepe-cakes with pecan butter and a latte. Let the 2-week food binge begin! Tucson is HOT, which unfortunately limits the potential activities for the day. Not to worry though - I'm more interested in catching up than seeing too many sights. There will be plenty of sight-seeing to fill the time in the next two weeks. I'm also trying to avoid kicking off my trip with a severe sunburn.

Since I'm on here, I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate Joseph Nguyen, my partner in crime, on his graduation today. Way to go Doc!

It's not just the food

It's now less than a week from my departure and it feels like an update is long overdue.

Until now I've mostly raved about all the food I'm going to eat, but delicious street food is - of course - my second love. My first is history. And despite having (finally) made a commitment to Latin American history, those who know me well should know that I've been fascinated by the U.S. in the 1960s from a very young age. So you can be sure that my first journey through the Deep South will also involve some key historical landmarks.

Although we plan to see (a little of) Mississippi and (a lot of) Alabama out the window of a moving vehicle, I can't pass up the opportunity to stop at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. A day later, we'll finish off our stop in Atlanta with a visit to the King Center before we head north through the Carolinas. If anyone knows of any other worthwhile stops along our route, feel free to send me your suggestions.

Just for good measure

I've been dreaming about G'Raj Mahal since the first time I saw it on Eat St. a while back. I'm currently suffering some distress because I want to eat there SO bad, but we only have one day in Austin and I suspect this would interfere with my TX BBQ dinner plans. What do you think? Is it humanly possible to do Torchy's Tacos, BBQ brisket and super-spicy Goan Indian food all in a single day?

So much street food, so little time

As our goal for this trip, we're setting out to eat as much street food as we possibly can in eight days. Now, some of the places we'll be stopping probably don't have much to offer in terms of street food, but I've been assured that Austin, TX is street food heaven. I've been scouring the interwebs looking up potential places to eat, but I think we've decided to leave it up to fate and see what we stumble upon. That said, there is one exception to this rule and that is Torchy's Tacos - Joe's one and only street food must in Austin. So, to whet your appetite for what's to come (and to inform those of you who still seem to think that 'street food' means hot dog stands), here's a little preview of Torchy's courtesy of VendrTV.

12 states, 8 days and as much food as we can possibly eat.

So, here we are in May and my thesis defense is just around the corner. After being buried in work for the last few months, I'm taking a vacation. And it has occurred to me that this is a great excuse to get my blog and up and running again.

In case you're wondering
who Joe is.

My upcoming road trip has been mentioned a couple times on FB, eliciting (occasionally rude) questions. (Yes, Julie Pieterse, I'm talking about you!) So, here is the much-anticipated explanation: I'm headed south. Not surprising, since south is usually my direction of choice, but this time I'm going to the south. Joe and I have eight days to drive from California to Pennsylvania, in what is going to be a  fast-paced, tightly-planned, self-control-free street food tour of the southern United States.

At this point, we've sketched out our route, made a few minor and a few major adjustments, and now we're just ironing out the details. I've provided a map for your viewing pleasure (see below). I'll be flying into Arizona for a little Oaxaca reunion before we burn straight through to Austin, TX. After a full day of BBQ and street food in Austin, we'll head to New Orleans for another full day to be spent wandering the streets and indulging in the culinary delights of The Big Easy. Then it's off to Atlanta (with a pit stop in Montgomery, AL for a couple key land marks), where our goals involve fried chicken and MLK. After a night in Durham, NC, enjoying what I've been assured will the best of company, we'll head north through Virginia to arrive in the bustling metropolis of Hershey, Pennsylvania - just in time to (hopefully) get Joe settled into some new digs.

So, that's where things stand for now and we're pretty happy with the plan. Right now I am happily taking suggestions for driving tunes and food we should eat along the way. You can expect sporadic blog posts between now and June 2nd (when I leave for AZ), and after that I've made it my goal to post daily updates. Feel free to harass me relentlessly if I fail to do so.

View Hershey Road Trip in a larger map