Year 2000 Road Trip Extravaganza!
Saturday, July 22, 2000
Day 24: We're Comin' Home!
 Woodchuck to Gray Squirrel, we're comin' hoooome!
But not before visiting Hoover Dam, the eighth Wonder of the World and a big damn dam. It only costs us eight damn dollars to take the dam tour. We saw the damn turbines, the dam's transformers, and the big damn skateboard ramp that makes up the dam. Very interesting place, I hope to go back someday soon and take the dam hardhat tour. A few interesting facts about the damn: - The door that Chevy Chase falls out of in Vegas Vacation doesn't exist. In the movie, the door you see is actually a restroom door on the Arizona side of the dam.
- Las Vegas only uses about 1% of the power generated by Hoover Dam.
- Over 50% of the power generated by Hoover Dam is purchased by California.
- I was here!
Friday, July 21, 2000
Day 23: Vegas Baby, Vegas
I think 6:00 comes earlier in Colorado than in California...no sooner had my head hit the pillow it was time to go. There's a reason why I'm not usually up that early. We spent  most of our day driving through southern Utah...what a waste of space. The only notable part of the journey was seeing signs for Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Oh yeah, the brush fire was interesting too. We arrived at my Great Aunt Sandy's house in record time (Chris was driving) and, well, you can read about the rest of our evening in From The Road.
Thursday, July 20, 2000
Day 22: Boulder, Colorado
 Another beautiful day in Colorado. We woke up leisurely at the Hanna's in Colorado Springs and held a ROAD SCHOLARS meeting. We decided to forego Four Corners in favor of heading up to Boulder to visit my friend, Corey. The plan was to have dinner and hit the road across the Rockies en route to Las Vegas, NV. We said goodbye to Michelle and her family (including Katie, Brittany, Brittany's friend Tiffany, and Cassie) and drove to Boulder.
Corey, a Cal Poly Alum now working for IBM, gave us a tour of downtown Boulder, where you're either a student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, or a performer in the prestigious "Street Theatre". We were privileged to be entertained by such performers as the man who stuffs himself in a box and the Crazy Unicycle Guy, a.k.a. the Suicyclist. After the "show", we had an excellent Italian dinner at Antica Roma, a little pricey, but well worth the experience. Feeling stuffed and rather lethargic after dinner, we allowed ourselves to succumb to Corey's offer to crash for the night at his place. So we unrolled our sleeping bags, uncorked a California Syrah from his extensive collection, and settled in for another good nights sleep in Colorado.
Wednesday, July 19, 2000
Day 21: Colorado Springs
Finally, out of Texas! And we went across the skinnier part! About 30 minutes outside of Amarillo, where we spent the night, we went through Dumbass, TX...er, Dumass, where we tried once again to no avail to obtain an ear ornament for Mr. Pasley. Too bad, too, I was so looking forward to making THAT video! We made it through the rest of Texas, a piece of Oklahoma, and the northeastern part of New Mexico without incident, mostly because there wasn't anything around to create an incident out of. Talk about the middle of frickin' nowhere. I was rather excited, however, when we stopped in Raton, NM and discovered the Robin Hood Motel. For those not in the loop, Robin Hood is my radio handle whenever we break out our Motorola Talkabouts. Driving through Colorado was much more exciting. We kept an eye on a thunderstorm unfolding all around us and entertaining us with periodic flashes of lightning--most impressive against the mountain skyline. We also ran into a few of our not so intelligent friends along the way. This was one of the more...traumatic encounters. After we arrived at our Colorado Springs destination (home of my mom's long-time friend Michelle), we were treated to more impressive eye candy at the Garden of the Gods, a group of rock formations created during the Ice Age. If you ever get a chance to see the Garden, dusk is a great time to view it as the Colorado sky seems to have an endless supply of impressive evening cloud formations. But bring a block of wood or something, these things get heavy after awhile. One of the more scenic states along our trip, you see all kinds of things in Colorado, even young Harry Potter fans with birds on their shoulders. Hearing this bird talk, I think it was doing just as much reading as our friend Brittany.
Tuesday, July 18, 2000
Day 20: Round Rock
 Not one of our better days. We woke up and headed to Dell's Round Rock campus, where Chris was hoping to take advantage of "being there" and hook himself up for an internship next summer. Unfortunately Dell does not care if you came from Australia to visit their facility, they only review resumes submitted through proper corporate channels (which of course could have been done from California). They wouldn't even give us a damn tour.
It took us two days to get out of Texas after our little detour to Round Rock--no matter how fast we went we were still in Texas.
From The Road: Issue 7
I know I’ll eat my words as soon as I say this, but it seems like I must have seen it all by now. We just entered Oklahoma for about a 30 minute drive parallel to Texas in search of a mug. I haven’t seen this much flat land since Iowa, and I think this even surpasses that. Driving out here one has to wonder if these people even know about the rest of the country. I think I can see California from here, that’s how flat it is. No hills, …wow, two Wal-Mart trucks just whizzed by. they must be lost. As I was saying, no hills, no call boxes, no coffee mugs—just lots and lots of land and one very long, very straight road leading to the Pacific.
This is a slight change of pace from our recent adventures in New Orleans, LA. We arrived in N’Orleans around 1:30am Saturday morning. You might think that’s late, but by N’Orleans time the party was just getting started. I’ve never heard so much live music in one place in my life. Bourbon Street is literally a wall of bars and just about every one has a live band. We finally got to bed and the next morning it was café au lait and beignets at the Café Du Monde. A paddleboat tour down the Mississippi, a bus tour of the city, and an absolutely exquisite dinner at the Café Royal occupied the rest of the day. We’ve heard so much about them that Chris ordered a Mint Julep after dinner. A virgin Julep must be water with mint leaves in it because this thing was almost pure Bourbon. We amused ourselves by watching the mother of the family that sat down next to us as she tried her Julep. I don’t know what would have been more priceless, a picture of her expression or a picture of ours as we watched.
After dinner we split up. Chris was feeling rather spontaneous, rather wacky, kinda’ zany and he wanted to get an earring. We searched high and low for a piercing shop but the one we did finally find was closing. I never made it with him back to the hotel. As we were walking down the street, an impromptu Bastille Day Parade was marching by us: a bunch of drunk people harmonizing surprisingly well, considering. If cars turned down the street, they just had to wait. Naturally I started bouncing down the street with them, this was what I was in New Orleans to see. I followed the parade for a while and then broke off to see a hole in the wall jazz hall between Royal and Bourbon—maybe you’ve heard of it—Preservation Hall.
Five bucks paid for my next two hours of entertainment. The seven piece jazz band played four sets of straight up Dixieland jazz. The classic New Orleans moment came during one of the sets when the Bastille Day celebration came marching down the street. As the Preservation Hall Jazz Band played, saxophones and drums and various other instruments went strolling by the window behind them, to the consternation of the Preservation Hall boys. Y’all may think this kinda’ thing is boring compared to Chris’ quest for bare-breasted women begging for beads but hell, you can get that on the Internet.
Speaking of the Internet, of course y’all have heard of DotComGuy, that crazy Texan down in Dallas that has confined himself to his house for a year to demonstrate the capabilities of the Internet.
After our adventures in New Orleans it was off to Dallas. A good friend of my uncle, John Ezell, put us up for the night in his impressive Dallas home (complete with Jacuzzi). After being treated to lunch with John, we treated ourselves with a visit to the DotCompound, home of DotComGuy. You’ve more than likely heard of DotComGuy, an “Internet Evangelist” demonstrating the power of the Internet by using it as his sole means of survival for one year. Like us, he’s documenting the endeavor on his web site--you guessed it, dotcomguy.com. We had a great time visiting with DotComGuy and who knows, maybe we’ll be invited back for what will undoubtedly be a huge party at the end of the year. May the Net be with you!
The only other noteworthy event was our trip to Round Rock, TX, a Chris Pasley excursion. We met his friend Lauren from the Internet and treated her and her two friends to a game of bowling. Damn good of us if you ask me. The next morning we stopped by Dell’s headquarters to try and get Chris an internship. It probably would have been a good idea to have some kind of appointment or inside contact but hey, it was only 6 hours out of our way and the hotel was fairly cheap.
So that does it for now, consider yourself caught up. Next stop, Colorado Springs, CO. In the meantime, drive safely,
-Sean Labels: New Orleans, Oklahoma, Texas
Monday, July 17, 2000
Day 19: Texas
 Perhaps the greatest part of the Y2KRTE has been all the neat people we've encountered, especially the ones we've had an opportunity to spend some time with and really get to know. Most of these people we were at least acquainted with, but in some cases, such as Texas, we had no idea what to expect.
When I told my uncle Al that we'd be going through the Dallas area, he immediately suggested we stay with his friend, John Ezell. We were told he was a good friend, an attorney, had a huge house all to himself, and after a call from my uncle, he was expecting us. We pulled up on day 18 to a driveway full of cars. As soon as a familiar name was mentioned, his house full of family and friends welcomed us in as if we had known each other for years. The enforcers were especially accommodating. Southern hospitality certainly begins in Texas. We spent the night and half of the next day with John. We wanted to stay longer but duty called and DotComGuy (DCG) was anxiously awaiting our arrival. Located in an undisclosed Dallas location, the DotCompound has been the home of DCG for the past seven months. On January 1st at twelve noon he walked into the house with nothing but a laptop and the clothes on his back to demonstrate the power of the Internet. He will not leave the house until January 1, 2001, 366 days later. We arrived at the DotCompound not really knowing what to expect. It is a pretty normal looking duplex in a typical residential neighborhood. The lovely Alissa (who, to our dismay, we did not get to meet) instructed us that we would need to visit the production facility adjacent to the Compound in order to get wired. Everything that goes on in the DotCompound is broadcast live on the Internet, our visit was no exception. So with microphones on our lapels, we knocked on DCG's door. The Internet has certainly done him well. The DotCompound is just what you would expect from a twenty-something's bachelor pad--except for all the cameras (although I can think of a few single twenty-something's that would kill for such a setup). From furniture to DotComDog, I'd have to say DCG is set. It was a pleasure to visit with him and the chat room guests that track his every move online. It might not be as captivating as the O.J. trial, but if you get a chance, see what DCG is up to. He's certainly more hospitable than Judge Ito. After our visit to the Compound, we hit the road for Round Rock, TX and met Chris' friend Lauren at DoubleDave's, a local pizza joint and high school hangout. They were about to close so we had to eat in the parking lot. Lauren is one of the many young ladies whose acquaintance Chris has made over the years via the Internet, which I suppose is appropriate for our trip. However, since Lauren is so young, our entertainment options were somewhat limited and we ended up at the local bowling alley (which was also closing soon--not exactly a hoppin' nightlife in Round Rock).
Sunday, July 16, 2000
Day 18: New Orleans
Our hotel was half of a block up St. Anne Street and around the corner from the St. Louis Cathedral, a minor Basilica and a big damn church. I made it to 10:30 mass, which in honor of Bastille Day was in French. I managed to follow along fairly well though and it was neat to hear some French songs on the organ. There were some very nationalistic French-speaking locals that more than made up for those of us who didn't know the songs. After mass I had my escort return me to the hotel (actually, this really was an old man's escort to mass) and we packed our things and headed to Dallas. But not before one last cup of coffee on the veranda.
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