The Journey is Winding Down

Getting oh so close to New Orleans, within striking distance as I like to say (less than 500 miles). I am so excited to see Sophie after so many weeks away from her (my almost 4 yr. old daughter for those not in the know). Seems like it's been a long time. Also looking forward to getting back to the big easy. It takes some time getting used to that city, but it is a pretty special place. Still goin back to live in Central City, which is special because of its murder rate, but I have been pretty good about keeping my nose clean and minding my P's and Q's, so we'll keep hoping for a violence free experience. New Orleans is not the safest place, which is part of what is hard to get used to, but it's dynamic for sure. And, I have met some great people there who are fast friends for me, so that is good.

Hoping to jump onto some work ASAP once I get down there, so as to not let all of this money I made go away all quick like. It's just so wacky, driving across this huge country, pulling this big ol' booty behind me like it's so life raft or something. It's huge, and I can't believe it made it all this way without falling apart, but it did. Seems like the bracing we did in Portland helped a bit, I am sure more could be done and would not hurt.

It's been pretty cool though, meeting new people and finding veg oil along the way. Columbus was fun. Vera and Kirsten rocked hard on Final Witness. Vera was cracking my shit up, big time. You get punch drunk after working those long days, and she got me with the ol' left hook more than once. Anyway, it's hard to find closure for an adventure like this, I'll just show up in New Orleans and live life not on the road for a while, just like that. Who knows how many more miles the Empress has in her. It's tiring to do all this driving, but it is pretty fun too. More later... here's some videos of climbing in Kentucky and buying some veggie oil from Kirk in Frankfort, KY. He had a great setup for filtering. Looks like hell, but using the water heater is genius and the lawnmower trick was new to me. That's the cool thing about veggie oil, it's just people making shit up and using it to fuel their cars and trucks from common trash.