A Day In The Life of George

680 miles after Atlanta, I arrived in our nation's fine capitol, DC. Between the vendors on every corner selling airbrushed t-shirts sporting Obama's face and delicious $1 hot dogs, I may (or may not) have walked in and around a little bit of heaven.

Arriving last night to my 10' by 12' room filled with 5 sleeping roommates, was not nearly as discouraging as it first looked. It turns out that that same group of sleeping 'beauties' had my best interest in mind. They had SO MUCH to take care of at 6am (in the room), they obviously didn't fathom the concept of communal living; i.e. quiet hours. Needless to say, I was ready for my tour of the national mall bright and early. Little did I know that the day ahead of me was about to change a little piece of my world.

As I was looking over my city map trying to decide how in the world to navigate the mass transit system, I was saved by the world's oldest hostel-hopper. He appeared with a bright white light shining behind him. We were at the metro before I knew it (such an exaggeration because this man has such horrendous social skills he consistently turns 10 min. into an hour)...and 10 minutes later...I was on my own in the heart of DC. It didn't take long to realize the architectural genius that was required to construct this city-phenomenal. And maybe even more important than the overabundance of politically charged t-shirts and delicious hot dogs-was the free entry into some of the most amazing museums out.

So my time has been well spent. I will leave DC in the am as a metro-extraordinaire. The future of my hostel-hopping is on the up & up-steadily progressing with each random stop. And the next stop includes at least one home-cooked meal. Life is good. PA's next.

Old Friends, New Fun

It's pretty difficult not letting the stress and pressures of being unemployed, homeless, and on the longest vacation of my life get to me.

Although I have stayed in a couple of pretty atrocious places, I have also been put up by several different friends that I hadn't seen in far too long.

My self-guided (free) walking tour of the beatiful streets of Savannah, lead me to the statue of Savannah's 'Waving Girl'. She sits at the front end of the infamous River Street.

11 days in

About 1,350 miles in and so far I have strolled the streets of Ft. Lauderdale, Cocoa Beach, St. Augustine, Savannah, Charleston, and I'm currently in Atlanta. I have spent somewhere around $300 on gas but not even $100 on accommodations. However, some of the accommodations have been meager at best. I found the only hoStel (definitely not a hotel) in St. Augustine simply expecting a good night sleep. I should have understood in advance that words like 'good' come with a price and since the price of this particular bed was $14, 'good' is nowhere in sight.

Somewhere along the next 3 hour drive I figured out exactly where each penny of that $14 was allotted.
dollar #1 was spent on the tin foil draped across the bathroom wall-as if a mirror?
dollar #2 was for sure used to buy the $1 bundle of 150 towels which they pass out upon arrival
dollar #3 may or may not have been used for the potentially laundered bed sheet I was expected to use
dollars #4-7 were spent on the exterminator that clearly never showed up
#8 was spent in 1823 (the yr the building was built) on all of the door handles and locks, allowing for zero sense of security
Im pretty sure #9 bought the outfit that the owner wore BOTH days I was there
#10 went towards the sandpaper they called toilet paper
dollar #11 covered the electricity that ran the fans-because there was no air conditioning (St. Augustine's IN FLORIDA)
and dollars#12-14 paid for the marker and the posterboard that read "ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKE BREAKFAST-FREE"
If only they had charged $15/night, maybe I actually would've gotten that bogus all you can eat pancake breakfast.