Driving up

The adventure that is life has begun, I suppose. Yesterday, I drove 11 hours to D.C. and met Noah. We took the metro to meet some of Noah's friends from a Salvadorian bakery and headed into the match. The crowd was as fanatical as I have ever seen aside, of course, from the Nation at Sanford Stadium. Flags and shrill whistles swirled around the bowl shaped stadium and the rhythmic drum beats induced a stompdance that undulated the entire upper deck of RKF stadium. The game was good and despite several great shots, it ended in a 0-0 draw. Afterward, We went out for beer at a Salvadorian restaurant for beer. I think the owner liked us. I wouldn't have guessed this at first as he wasn't a very smiley guy, but then he sent our table a round of tequila. Or maybe he didn't have tear ducts and was so happy to have seen his team play that he had to release his emotions somehow. So i guess we drank his tears. Salty, awful, then sour tasting tears.

In the morning, I left D.C. Though I had a great night there, I do not like the city as a whole. It is crowded, busy, not so pretty and as Geoff puts it, incredibly bright. Cities are stressful.

The drive to D.C. and the drive to Newport, from where I currently write, were long and uneventful. I listened to a book by Dave Barry, though not one of the goofy ones. This is a prequel or sequel to the original Peter Pan and is a fairly good book. "Pan and the Shadow Thiefs" or something.

When I drove into Newport, it was 8:00pm, 60 degrees and cloudy, so i couldn't see much from the bridge. i drove around town and then headed to Courtney and Ian's house. It is about seven miles from downtown and is in a nice neighborhood. I have a bed for a few days here. Tomorrow, im going to play pickup ultimate at a local park and then start looking around for potential housing. Courtney has mentioned me to a captain who is willing to find some day work for me to do. Also, she might be able to help me get a job at the bar that all the sailors go to. I like it here

The plan

So here is the plan. It will be interesting to see how differently things actually happen.

On Friday, May 30th, I will leave Georgia. I will have some clothes, my bike, some cash(~$400), my backpack and sleeping bag loaded up into my car. I am going to drive to D.C. In D.C., Noah and I are going to watch El Salvador play Guatemala in soccer(or football if you are not from the US or if you are from the US and pretentious). This should be fun because we are going with a bunch of Noah's Salvadorian coworkers and although i do not know anything about either team's abilities or fan base, I am going to imagine the post game celebration is a large mob chanting in unison and weilding various weapons throughout the streets of DC. Then maybe after we'll get Denny's.

The next day, im going to go to NYC or Boston and stay with one of my friends in those cities. Noone that i have called there has called me back, so maybe I will couchsurf. If you do not know what this is, go to www.couchsurfing.com. It is good.

Then on to Newport, Rhode Island where I will stay with a longtime family friend, Courtney Smith. She has lived there for a while now and is well connected in the yachting community. Hopefully, she will be able to give me some good ideas as to where to begin in finding a job on boat that will go around the world. Then, I will work on the boat and when it stops at land, I will use the money that I made to explore whatever country that I am in for a few weeks. When the money runs low, i'll go back to the port and find another boat. Is this going to work? Stay tuned to find out.