Heaven can wait; I am going to Seattle

Saw that sign when my bus stopped at a layover still in Montana. Tempting as it was, I opted for continuing this journey. Besides, the issue of whether St. Peter would let me through the gates is still quite open.

Getting to Washington State, roamed the streets of a town called Spokane. My training in watching Planet Earth helped me quickly understand that it was mating season - Friday night - for the natives. Saw numbers of natives all lined up in front of the mating sites - 'clubs' - ready and willing to start the mating process. I realized this was another temptation for me and reboarded the bus on time.

Both layovers were tiringly long, especially considering that it was a night bus, making sleeping difficult.

Even though I had sent all my books home (for which they request customs from me, absurd as it sounds), new books keep coming me. Before departing, we had talked about the musical Wicked. As a surprise then, a friend gave me a copy of the book it is based on, and I had it for the road. Basically it is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch's perspective. Very well written book, easy to get lost into.

gator sighting!

GATOR SUP! (you can barely see it in this pic)

LB (llama mamma) and i trudge through some thickness this morning.

woke up and it was pouring with lightning and thunder (i forget this happens sometimes after living in oregon for so long)

jumped onto a bus and went out into the bush about an hour outside of NOLA. the number of trash heaps and completely vacant buildings is astounding. you would not believe how many hundreds of apartments, houses and housing projects still stand vacant down here.

we bussed across lake ponchetrain (you can see where a bridge goes right across the center) the lake only gets to be about 8-15 ft deep. this drive exposed me to some of the most affected areas of the hurricane.



we went onto the honey island swamp tour, which was really hellz cool. it was pouring rain when we went out, which is a sobering way to do it. but it is also was very enjoyable (probably mostly because our skiff was covered)

my mind was thrust backwards to high school reading josef conrad's "heart of darkness." i felt i could definitely relate to Marlow and his struggle to deal with human nature in the thick of the african congo... but this was not that, but it just totally reminded me of it due to the circumstances.

our tour guide was a full blown cajun... old-fashioned. he grew up on the bayou out in the bush of louisiana. 75 miles from new orleans in a rare city that to this day still does not have a fast food joint (pretty rare i would say) he spoke slowly with a thick cajun accent. he really was a great tour guide. "we are going to be going on a swamp tour together. that means we are going to be navigating through narrow waterways. that means if it looks like we are going to hit a tree, then we are going to hit a tree!"

he warned us that it was entirely possible that snakes will fall onto the boat. my mom (llama momma, LB) was kind of nervous.

this post is getting cut short AGAIN. i am going to post a few pictures, and hope to continue spinning this later.

for all pictures, check out the facebook