Buckhead Church

Miles: 11057.3
Gallons Burned: 364.1
Caffeinated Drinks: 69
Gigabytes of Pictures: 30.6

Ok let me explain how I ended the last post. I didn't mean to demean Mars Hill Church. I love Mars. First of all the unofficial motto/statement of purpose "It's all about Jesus", obviously the amazing people, the individually missional character of the church, the "from the gut" declaration of the Word, the indie feel, the black (I love black), the...You get the point. Despite the "cultish" name (Mars Hill sounds a little creepy) it is a great example of biblical church (please know that I respect your at home approach Dave). So when I said:
"a church that made Mars Hill look like a preschool"
what I was trying to get across was the size, not the composition/organization/maturity/etc. Buck Head Church is crazy big. One of their 3 campuses (the baby campus) does Mars Hill in 3 services (10,000 people).
Oh yeah, you might need context for the last 6 sentences. I stayed the night after St. Augustine south of Jacksonville at a rest stop off Interstate 10. And crossed into Georgia early on February 14th (yeah I'm more than 2 weeks behind on my blogging). After a little PT, I spoke to Tony (a big gangsta-looking dude at that rest stop) who told me that he and his girlfriend left San Antonio in search of a little fun on a road trip. They were low and cash, and he said they would head up to Detroit to find a job. This little event stands out to me because all I could think to do was sympathize with him. I didn't know what to say. He was in a tight spot, and I couldn't really help him.
Anyway, I drove north toward Atlanta and made it into town just in time to be late to meet Eric at a Starbucks. After saying "hi" and shaking hands I followed him all the way through a huge parking garage and into an overflow lot. I didn't even know the name of the church. I just knew from Yuskie, a solid guy who recently moved to Seattle from Atlanta and volunteers at Mars, to meet up with Eric. So I'm in a foreign city following a guy I've never met to a place I've never heard of...great plan? Yes, it was. I was led by Eric to this building:


It looks like a nondescript office building but it actually is a custom built church. We quickly passed through a lobby reminding me of a dozen convention centers. And I walked down to the second row stage right. Thanks to both of you Yuskie and Eric. After a great message about Jesus, I called Eric and got directions to the "Fusion". Again I was in the dark with respect to the nature of where and to what I was going. Apparently they are church-wide alcohol-free safe-zones where professional singles from all life stages come to mingle and meet each other. So I of course bring a bottle of Washington wine. Yep. The south is a little different, especially about alcohol. I chatted and ate Oreos until the Fusion ended. Then Eric, a fusion coach, kindly let me stay at his place. We chatted and enjoyed each others company. He told me about the World of Coca-Cola, so the next day I went.
I expected a corporate center similar to Microsoft's lame little visitor center (never go, it really is terrible, they put no effort into it). I was totally wrong. The experience was closer to a specially visit to Willy-Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Here are some videos and stills of the magic at Coke.
The first Coke dispenser for the space shuttle:

All the recent Olympic Torches:

The Atrium:

The Tasting Room:

The best part was the tasting room where you can taste all the Coke products. Each stand serves products from Asia, North and South America, Europe, and Africa. You go around with a tasting cup and can try all of it. I discovered Europe has the Worst drinks. The absolute worst! South America had the best and the other continents were about the same.
Of course being in an urban center I had to eat Pho (pronounced "Fa").

I enjoyed my time in Georgia and I'd love to go back and visit or even live.
Next time I'll tell you about Tennessee...and the other Josh B.

Florida's Eastern Coast

Miles: 9624.3
Gallons Burned: 316.8 (total gas mileage is 30.377 so far)
Caffeinated Drinks: 59
Gigabytes of Pictures: 26.8

I'm sitting in Scoop Beauregard's Ice Cream and Coffee Shop. Enjoying a nice Latte. Contemplating a book. Yep life is good. Here in Falls Church the weather is cloudy and there are piles of snow everywhere...It's almost like there was a big storm here or something.
I just had this little blond-haired kid come up to me and say "Excuse me mister. But your computer is really cool my uncle has one just like it." All in one breath, then he turned away before I could even say thanks. Man, I clearly remember being that awkward yet bold and honest all at the same time. It was like a week ago! He just wanted to tell me exactly what he thought and that's all. Why do I feel self conscious and so often don't say what I think with boldness like that kid did? We should be more like that kid.
The odd and fantastic people I have run into on this trip have helped me to see why is is so stupid to live as I do: Self absorbed. From those kind folks at St. George's, the great young guy from the Alabama fireworks store, the kid from Wolf Mountain, the snow bird down in the Keys, the friends from school that I have seen, a fellow blogger from Bowling Green, the wonderful couples in San Antonio and Dunedin, all the people that have been there and been harsh or encouraging, the nice and cruel, the needy and the generous, all of you have been agents showing me how small my perspective has been. So thank you. So much.
Now that I have "introspected" a little how about we talk about what happened after my adventure in the Keys.
I slept that night at a rest stop on the Ronald Reagan/Florida's Turnpike. The next day I drove up the east coast of Florida on FL-1 and FL-A1A. I pulled off A1A at Patrick Air Force Base's Beach. There was an amazing beach with no wind and 8 foot waves that dozens of surfers were enjoying. Since this coast is open cold ocean, they were wearing wet suits. I'd love to learn to surf, maybe some day I'll head out to the Washington coast and give it a shot.

I made it to Cape Canaveral about 4pm and drove out to the Kennedy Space Center.



I bet you think I went into the visitor center...Well...No. It was late in the day and it cost $38. But I took pictures of the outside of the center!
On the way out I notice this place:

I guess NASA has its own nuclear reactor across the inter-coastal waterway.
I continued north to New Smyrna Beach and enjoyed seeing the cars out driving on the sand.

Next time St. Augustine and my night time shenanigans at Castillo de San Marcos...

Central Florida

Miles: 7765.3
Gallons Burned: 265.8
Caffeinated Drinks: 42

Holy cow! I added 1,000 miles from 11pm on February 12th to 6pm on February 14th. That's not at break neck speed, but most of them were at night and on unfamiliar roads all the while fighting my GPS unit and its strange concept of space and time.
No big deal.
Right now I'm at Eric's house (not the soon-to-be-winged naval aviator in Pensacola from my high school days) in Atlanta Georgia. He has one orange tabby in particular who is my buddy right now. He is constantly nosing the keyboard, so any misspellings are do to him. So how do I know Eric? Well I go to Mars Hill Church and there is this guy who started showing up to Campus Cleanup, Yuskie (pronounced Yoose-Kay). He had just moved out to Seattle from Atlanta for work. Yuskie is a solid guy who is honestly amazing. He is fun to be around and knows God in a refreshing way. So his buddy Eric from Buckhead Church (yeah, the name...its odd. But nothing compared to Mars Hill Church, sounds cultish) offered to put me up for tonight.
There is snow on the ground...Not good. I knew that the white was coming, but seeing it for the first time since New Mexico sends shivers down my spine.
How about I tell you about my time after Dunedin, FL?
Fort DeSoto was a strategic defense position guarding the entrance to Tampa Bay. It was built at the turn of last century.
The guns and fortifications are significant, but the purpose of the structure was to be an invisible mortar position that would deal massive damage to ships at close range (less than 5000 yards). The exposed side is overgrown by brush intentionally to provide camouflage. An invading ship wouldn't even see the lethal shot coming.


After the fort, I ran down to Myakka State Park in south central Florida. The park is famous for the two biggest airboats in the world and the best example of Florida's old prairies. They still burn the prairies to renew the ecosystem.
Both here and in the Everglades the vultures are a constant menace...to cars. Yeah they will eat the rubber tires off your car!

I got so close to this little guy that I almost stepped on him! Armadillos are really neat. I ran into at least 20 in my 5 hours at Myakka.

So as I drove through the park I realized there were no trail markers.
WARNING Random Aside!!
I love to hike. I have been known to walk the mile down to Lincoln Park in West Seattle and wander through the tall pines and cedars for hours lost in thought just to "hike". I have driven the 22 miles out to Tiger Mountain over and over just so I can pack 40 pounds of bricks up to the summit (Nick an I are building something...It'll be sweet when we're done). I love to drive the 195 miles out to Mount Rainier at least 6 times a summer (often alone) just so I can hike at 1-2 mile high altitudes. I like hiking!
So back to Myakka. They had NO trails, NO self guided tours. Only a road to drive. Well I couldn't stand for that! So I ditched my car, slapped on some Vietnam Marine Corp BDUs (battle dress uniform), laced up my steel toes, and charged into the brush. I still hadn't seen an alligator and I really wanted to. Very soon I came to a game trail and followed that. I saw this. Can you see the alligator? With my trusty 25X monocular, I could just make it out. I saw my first alligator! Yes!

Here are two pictures showing just how amazing this place is.


And I even took a picture of myself on location.

Sorry I look all pissed off. But the downpour started just as the picture was taken making a second shot dangerous for the camera.
After Mayakka, I headed south with the last of the day light being drenched in subtropical showers. I told George that I would stay near Myakka, but I changed my mind. I guess the rain sealed the deal. I pushed on to the Everglades so I could wake up in the warm southern sun. I took highway 41 instead of interstate 75. I figured I could save $5 on tolls by taking the county highway instead of the famed "Alligator Alley". I still stand by my decision, but I nearly bit it on that road.
I started down 41 at 9:30pm I anticipated a deserted stretch of straight blacktop. It wasn't.
In the first 20 minutes I dodged 4 oblivious armadillos. They aren't the most destructive things you can hit, but I'm not driving an uparmored turbo-diesel air ride equipped HMMWV(huvmee). I'm driving the Jolly Green (short for jolly green giant, because is is green, small, and sounds like a happy kid hopped up on Skittles each time I turn the key).
The really fun part came when I was doing 65 mph (105 kph for my English browsers) with my brights on and this blinding brown blur flew at me from my left. I swerved hard right and felt contact through the steering wheel. I counter-steered hard left feeling the car sliding sideways, so I tapped the brake to bring her out of the slide then counter-steered lightly left once more and came to a quick stop.
My post incident inspection revealed no damage to the car. My suspicion is that the deer's nose clipped the left side mirror casement and then the front or flank touched my left rear fender.
The whole ordeal reminded me of a night Joe and I were coming back to Hillsdale from a Ted Leo concert in Detroit. It was 2:30am and I was on my 3rd mug of "caffeine re-enforced cappuccino". We were at 68 mph (109 kph) and I looked this 10 point buck in the eye as I slammed the car hard right and hard left. On highway 41 I was not as heavily caffeinated, so my slower reflexes probably bloodied some poor deers nose.
I made it to Flamingo in the Everglades at about 12:45am and slept the sleep of the satiated.

Gray Thunder

Miles: 5518.0
Gallons Burned: 188.6
Caffeinated Drinks: 35

New Orleans has been great, so great that I "lost" a whole day. It's not as bad as it sounds. I just was totally convinced that Sunday was Saturday...either that or last night I slept for 29 hours instead of 5.
Anyways, I'm sitting in the Pere Antoine Restaurant enjoying some fine creole food and a fine Mango Margarita (I'll discuss that in detail later). Sunday is relatively calm in the French Quarter (except for the rabid Saints fanatics) fewer people in the streets and the beads are thrown with less regularity. Now that all my clothes and almost all my shoes are dry, I've been thinking about Galveston TX.

I arrived at Galveston Island State Park early in the day (having only driven from nearby San Antonio). The park was dead; there were only 6 RVs in 65 sites (of course there were no tents). All the facilities had been upgraded recently causing me to suspect a rebuild after Hurricane Ike. My campsite was about 3 feet above the Ocean making the whole park subject to the storm surge which accompanies a hurricane. Man this margarita is good... Oh yeah Galveston!
No not yet...
My absolute favorite beverage is Grand Marnier Cognac, which as it so happens is in my Margarita. It snaps as soon as you imbibe it. When you swirl it in your mouth you then are overwhelmed by the citrus essence and the smoothness of the alcohol. After you swallow GM, you are left with a neat finish with no harsh aftertaste, just the rolling ease of gentile l'orange. Hmm...Thanks Dave. Seriously you Da man. I had GM for the first time in Dave's kitchen back in Michigan as he offered several options to educate my palate. Ever since, GM has been my drink of choice.
Okay, Okay back to Galveston:
I setup the tent and went into town as the rain started. I obliviously drove out to the peninsula, then through town, and out to the sea wall. Meanwhile, the storm began in earnest. I updated the blog, returned emails, and called someone all while my poor second tent languished under the assault of a thunderstorm.
While this unobserved carnage occurred, I watched the surfers battle the waves, right next to the brake-water. This reminded me of an old Emo Phillips joke about surfers crashing against rocks. You'd think, "if I was a cool surfer dude, why wouldn't I surf on a sandy beach" (only 1 mile away)? But I am a chess player, not a surfer dude.

Remember I'm standing out on a break-water and the surfers are about 20 feet away from the jagged granite boulders!
I am standing at the end of this while taking the video above:

The next day I drove around Galveston again munching on a Whataburger, but this time with an eye for history and storm damage. It's amazing how much you miss when you don't take your time.



The city was hit with Ike's hundred mile-an-hour winds leaving millions of dollars in damage. State-wide the storm did over $12 billion in havoc and the insurance companies cried (according to the radio news stations).
I enjoyed the Victorian house, however my favorite architectural style is Art Deco. Just so you know when I get to New York City my fascination with the beauty of buildings will likely overshadow all.
Another odd observation: The storm destroyed the breakwaters in Galveston, so While I was there they were building new ones using huge pink granite boulders. The quality of the granite was excellent (counter-top grade), yet they were tossing it into the Gulf of Mexico...
Next time I move onto Louisiana.