San Diego

USS Midway, San Diego CA

Let's start off with the good aspects of the St. Christopher International Hostel in San Diego. There was a very relaxed atmosphere where everyone was introduced to one another upon arrival by Juliette, the hostel manager. We were encouraged to bring back beer and wine (no spirits) so we could spend the evening with the other guests learning about each others cultures or playing card based drinking games. This place had the hostel spirit of bringing together people from different backgrounds better than any other hostel I've stayed in.

Balboa Park, San Diego CA

And the not so good? Juliette was incredibly friendly, kind and helpful, but this is not the best thing in the world when you don't want your things washing just before you intend to use them. And the relaxed atmosphere is great for sitting around recovering from the heat and the Greyhound, but not so great when you ask for a sheet for your bed and each time you're told she'll get one for you as soon as the washing's done, and you probably won't need one anyway. Yes the room was dark and at least 30 degrees with no air flow so the temperature isn't a problem, but with no door and 5 other people sharing the room I'd be more concerned about exposing my sweating slumbering body to the rest of the hostel - nobody deserves that. The most obvious negative, obvious once you've been there at least, is that the hostel is on the flight path so every couple of minutes there's a 737 flying at about 30 ft bringing all conversation to a temporary stop. Also, I was staying in the 'African Room'. I think she had another reason to call it that, but she was much more animated in telling the story of the orgies that took place in there when a couple of Nigerian lads stayed. If the stories are to believed, those bunk-beds took a battering.

San Diego itself is an alright place. If you like boats then there's plenty to see down at the harbour and I had an amazingly geeky afternoon aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Midway, sitting in ejector seats and F-4 Phantom cockpits. I also went up to Balboa Park with the intention of going to the world famous zoo. I remember having a CD about San Diego Zoo when I was little, but at $42 I thought it was a bit pricey so just went round the desert garden instead for free. Apparently it's much like any other decent zoo so just image Chester Zoo in 40 degree heat and you're there.

Goodbye dear friends...

There was a sad moment before leaving San Diego as I had to say goodbye to a good friend. Two good friends in truth: my trainers. They were stinking! Plus I'd made my way through most of the sole. They were left with the good people at Sketchers to be incinerated as a biological hazard. This time I've toned down on the colour from yellow to red, but to make up for it I've gone for more colour. You should have seen the yellow ones though - not even I could get away with wearing them.

...and hello to my new obscenely red friends.

Arizona somewhere

Another overnight Greyhound bus trip has got me to Flagstaff AZ. Again, no proper crazies, just a late bus, a border patrol check, and someone who'd just left prison as an initial traveling companion. Traveling across Nevada and Arizona has a similar kind of feel as traveling across Montana, except it's far dustier and there's one or two more cacti.

Today, the washing machine. Tomorrow, the world! Or the Grand Canyon, whichever's easier.

Stu: Now With Added Scars!

Warning: Pictures don't match paragraphs.

First of all, thank you for the support and messages since the accident and my last post. I want this blog to document my whole trip. My metal state is an important part of that and to ignore it in favour of documenting sights seen and activities done wouldn't give a true reflection of a trip of this magnitude. So, this is as good a place as any to carry on.

Pittsburgh PA

As I'm sure we're all aware, things were pretty crappy last week. Energy levels down, confidence hiding in a corner, and a desire just to curl up and not watch the world go by. Since then, things went a little more downhill. The gaping and oozing holes in my face were coupled with feeling returning to my lip. A sign that things are healing, but some serious pain. I thought things may not be so bad so I got a Subway one night. Took an hour to eat and the Dr Pepper (like Coke, it kills everything) had me in tears. I spent a couple of days without brushing me teeth and eating as little as possible. Eventually found a CVS with some Red Cross CankerSore (a staggering 20% benzocaine) which did an incredible job of numbing my tongue and making me drool.

Pittsburgh PA

World's largest electric guitar, Carnegie Science Center

Things have become better though. I made it to Pittsburgh where CouchSurfing has come up trumps. I had one night in a motel a fair distance out of town, but then stayed with a guy called Somesh for a couple of nights. I slept well into the morning and didn't leave bed until lunchtime and I started feeling quite a bit better. My wounds seem to be healing alright which is going to make things so much better. Not sure what the wound on my lip is going to do, but it looks like my nose will be alright with just a scar or two and maybe a bit of a crater. Most annoying thing now is trying to avoid scratching or wiping my nose as I just get me fingers covered in gunk every time. I'm now staying with a girl called Iva and we've been out and about seeing some sights and cycling across the city in 35+ °C heat. At the moment, I'm well on the mend and just need to get my stamina up and get used to high speeds again before I'm back to how things were. For anyone out there who somehow manages to replicate my faceplant and disfigure themselves, my advice is simple - antibiotics, anesthetic, sleep for a week.

National Aviary

So that covers the effects of crashing, but there are longer term factors that affects what goes on in me head. Anyone who's done loads of business travel will know how functional hotels and motels are. They all provide the same services, have the same standards, have the same TV channels showing Avatar every Sunday, are comfortable enough, but day after day they offer no feeling of 'home'. You can rest, you can sleep, you can sit in your pants dropping crumbs all over the bed, but you can never fully relax. A related factor is the loneliness. You interact with people (mostly in motels or restaurants) but as you're always on the move you don't really get the opportunity to fully know and understand anyone. I haven't seen a familiar face since I left DC on the 16th April. For the moment, this isn't affecting me too much and I believe that this is an outcome of my depression. I became introvert and denied that I had any problems, and now many negative feelings kind of get pushed to one side and ignored. The best way I an describe it is that my mood is generally empty and isn't so easily influenced by outside factors. So for me, I focus on the cycling and getting to the next State capital and I can cope with that. For anyone else, this could be an incredibly lonely trip which could really get you down.

Phipps Conservatory

More than enough of that, so back to what's been happening. Firstly, cycling anywhere near a city the size of Pittsburgh sucks! After conquering the last few mountains the roads changed from country roads to 6 lane behemoths. I also got the first bit of abuse shouted at me for ages. For anyone thinking of shouting abuse at cyclists, shouting 'FUCK YOU!' in a really high pitched whiny voice scares about as much as a 6 year old girl carrying a bunch of flowers. Once in Pittsburgh I was down to my last $21 in cash. Time to go to the cash machine, except that two of them couldn't complete the transaction. Bloody Halifax! No idea why they suspended the PIN, but it all got cleared up easily enough after 5 minutes of navigating their bastard automatic answering service.

A genuine $2 bill - I didn't know they existed either

Tuesday was a phenomenal day of food and science. Had lunch at the Red Oak Cafe in Oakland. Just a normal cafe really, but some of the best food I've had here in the States. Another factor in my mental health is the food. Most of it is chains and sandwiches and burgers and fries with everything and deep fried this and deep fried that or Italian that has no resemblance to authentic Italian other than it contains pasta. But this place had genuine food. I even had that grain stuff that has no taste and only vegans, health food fanatics and celiacs know about. After that I went to the Carnegie Science Center; guitars, robots (I drew a game of air-hockey against a robot) and a WWII submarine. Not as good as the Connecticut Science Center, but still a great afternoon. On the way home I went into Hello Bistro. It was calling me for some reason and I was expecting a typical get-shown-to-a-seat-with-a-menu-of-steaks-and-burgers kind of affair. Turns out the place wasn't opening for another couple of days and they were doing a practice run of everything. They had burgers, but their main thing was essentially doing salad with the Subway process of constructing it as you go along. Most salads you get over here are side salads before a meal with a few leaves hanging over the edge of a small plate and some dressing to throw over the top. This was done properly with cutting and mixing and it was good. Two good meals with fresh ingredients and no deep-fat frying (one of which was free) in one day really cheered us up.

Other activities in Pittsburgh include the National Aviary, some late-night table-tennis, some slacklining, and the Phipps Conservatory botanical garden. How much better things would be if I weren't on antibiotics and could have a few beers!

Tiff: 1999 - 2012

In other news, we've had to say goodbye to another family member - Tiff The Dog (named after a 7 legged rabbit called 'Tiff The Dog', with one leg on his back so he could hop along the ceiling, who lived in a treehouse under the sea before the colour blue was invented). I'd like to take a moment to remember some of her most memorable achievements:

• 12 dry Weetabix
• 1 large box of Thornton's Special Toffee
• 1 kg of margarine
• 6 creme eggs (including most of the wrappers)
• 1 large bag of fruit pastels (on multiple occasions)
• The list continues, I just can't remember or haven't heard
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