5515 miles and Counting...

It took 5515 miles to get from Silver Spring MD to Hermosa beach. Here is the route we took so you can understand how we added 2500 miles to the 3000 Mile trip across country.



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Happy Cinco de mayo

Yes, we made it to Cali and are a few entries behind in the blog but it is tough to blog and camp at the same time. I will catch up on siaz de mayo.

Ghost Town's

After our outdoor experience with Pepe we headed north to check out Colorado and the rocky mountains. Our destination was Aspen but we ended spending the night in Vail after we found out that Independence pass was closed. When we arrived at Vail it became clear that it was a ghost town, the resort had closed a few weeks before and now all the hotels, restaurants, ski slopes and shops were closed and under repair. The frustrating part to the few souls that were still around Vail was the slopes were still in great condition after one of the greatest ski season's in Colorado's history.
The next day we visited another ghost town called Aspen before we stopped over in Montrose. It was a bittersweet couple of days because the slopes were calling our name but none of the lifts were running. :(

Taos and the Great Outdoors - John Candy Style

The Rio Grande Gorge Near Taos New Mexico
Kiwi Chilling at our Camp Site
A view of Eagle's Nest lake

After Santa Fe we headed north to Taos so we could do some camping and fishing and to realize why all that camping gear we lugged 4000 miles ( Yes 4000 miles and counting) might just be taking up space. We camped two nights on the Cimmiron river in North Eastern New Mexico and were having a great time until we met Pepe Le Peu.

Skunks are a confident bunch, I guess because nothing thinks messing with them is worth the trouble because Pepe confidently moseyed into camp and started chowing down on Kiwi's dog food which was two feet away from us around 9 p.m. Now trying to scare a skunk away is delicate business because the last thing I wanted to do was to take a bath in the 50 degree river so we found that an effective method is to say "shoosh" in a quiet relaxing manor and whimper a little bit. Unfortunately this skunk knew it was king so it cased the joint for 30 minutes until we jumped into our tent and prayed it didn't want to sleep with us.

4 years and counting.

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary in Santa Fe by having a great time and doing a lot of window shopping. Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico and has a thriving arts scene, well lets make that a thriving gallery scene. Santa Fe is an incredible city withs its great weather, blue skies, and southwestern architecture which seemed to inspire countless artist like Georgia O'Keeffe. The only part that was disappointing was it seemed that the groovy hippies and artist that made the art scenes so unique got rich doing it because everything was ridiculously priced. I could have opened a tye die T-Shirt shop and charged $150 a shirt and no one in the town would have blinked.

We also managed to visit St. Francis, which houses the oldest hand-carved Madonna statue in the US (http://www.visitsantafe.com/businesspage.cfm?who=SaintFrancis) as well as the Loretto Chapel that houses the miracle staircase (http://www.lorettochapel.com/history.html).

White Sands National Monument

We spent the afternoon and evening in White Sands National Monument trying to find our inner Ansel Adams and doing some sandboggining

Mulder and Scully investigate Roswell

Roswell's biggest claim to fame is when some unidentified wreckage turned up on a remote farm in July 1947 and the government quickly released a statement saying the wreckage was from an unidentified disk and then quickly pulled the statement from all news organizations. The other weird fact was the local mortician was called by someone representing the government asking if he had any child hermetically sealed caskets for some tissue samples that had been exposed to the elements for a couple of days. Great stuff right!

Well we started the investigation at the UFO Museum in Roswell. We were hoping to see some cold hard facts, but the museum turned out to be a high school science fair project and unless you counted the recreation of the crash site out of toothpicks evidence we came away feeling that the story might have been generated just to con me to coming to Roswell.

The unexpected is the best.

We didn't stay in San Antonio for their biggest social event because I was going stir crazy. Mainly because after driving 2500 miles the scenery was still too similar to home. I was ready for some desert, some snow topped mountains, some anything but Texas. Luckily 500 miles of driving from San Antonio to Carlsbad N.M changed everything. This was the drive I was dreading because I had a mental picture of Texas of being flat and treeless but the drive had rolling hills, desert landscapes, mesa's, and until we left I-10 in Fort Stockton the drive was nothing like what I had expected.

We arrived in Carlsbad Cavern's National Park around 3:00pm and surprise surprise the cobb's were behind schedule so we had about 20 seconds to buy tickets, kennel kiwi, and get to the elevators for the 750 foot descent into the cave before the park closed. I have done some spelunking before and figured this would be the same old stalagmite, stalactite stuff, and it was in a way, but it was also just a great experience overall because of the self guided nature of the 2 mile cave hike and the incredible size of the cave's rooms. We were both so impressed I was trying to talk melissa into one of the more adventurous tours which required gloves, a headlamp and no knowledge of the movie "the descent" but unfortunately she is a bit claustrophobic. And because I did see the movie "the descent" we ended the day spending 3 hours waiting for a half million bats fly out of a cave.

A day early and a dollar short in San Antonio

We arrived in San Antonio at 1pm after a good ride from South Padre. Melissa had the day all planned out with our first stop at Texas's Biggest Greatest Most Incredible Flea Market. Luckily they weren't pet friendly which kept our stay short and it only cost a dollar because unless I needed a great deal on a tacky gold plated cell phone holder or a 30 pack of black knee highs the greatest flea market seemed exactly like every other flea market except larger.

After our disappointment with the flea market we saw the Alamo so we could check it off the list and then we hit the riverwalk for some chips and salsa. Melissa sipped on her new favorite drink, The Mango Tango Margarita, while we discussed if we were going to stick around San Antonio for one more day to watch the riverwalk parade that would kick off San Antonio's biggest festival of the year.

The Padres over...

South Padre was not the party capital it was made out to be in the brochure or we missed the party by a couple of days which is becoming a reoccurring theme on this trip. South Padre is a small beach town with a lot of open beach and dunes. It reminded me of the outer banks.
We spent two nights relaxing at the beach and sipping drinks at the wanna wanna. We did our best to avoid any of the popular activities likekiteboarding, fishing, or horseback riding. I would say we did this because we needed to unwind from the travel, but melis might say something else. Anyway we had a great time and are off to San Antonio tomorrow.

Austin is too cool for the Cobb's

Austin is a cool town probably a little too cool for the Cobbs but we had a great time. We woke up in Austin or should I say Kiwi woke us up and she was full of life and ready to go to Zilker's park which runs along the Colorodo river and separates downtown Austin from south Austin. After kiwi dragged us around the park we hit Congress Street for a little shopping.

After we hit a few of the many shops we realized that Austin is different from any other town we had been in. Everyone was chillax and cool. Its hard for me to explain in words but as I was walking I saw a grandmotherly looking lady who was working in one of the gallery's putting together a reggae mixtape with some turntables and it didn't seem out of the ordinary.

We then took a break from Austin for a run to Lockhart TX and Kreutz Market for some authentic Texas BBQ. Before you can order, you actually have to rope the steer before they throw it on the grill and don't even think about asking for bbq sauce or they will brand you. The bbq was worth the trip to Austin by itself. I guess bbq is like seafood. Fresh is best.

We finished the night on 6th Street which is just 3 blocks worth of bars, clubs, and lounges all sandwiched together that is the crown jewel of Austin. We started by seeing a spanish soul band whose lead singer could play the guitar with a corona, a towel, his teeth, almost anything and finished the night at a dueling piano bar. We staggered home around 1 a.m. because we got to get up and go to south padre island for a little spring break 08 action.

Making Miles and not much else.

Yesterday we spent a long day driving from New Orleans to Austin, Tx. We have logged over 1500 miles in the last 4 days which is wearing on us a bit. The pictures are from our drive thru the swamp of Louisiana and our pit stop in whoknowswhere Tx for some lunch.

We hit the Texas Chili Parlor in austin last night for some XXX rated chili and some shiners at night.

Kiwi's Trail of Tears... N.O. Day Two.

Everyone had a good day in New Orleans on Day 2 except for Kiwi but we will get to that later.
We started the day in the quarter with some light shopping and a lunch date at Johnny's Po Boys. Now I was all jazzed for a Po Boy sandwich (Sandwich is my favorite food group) but I was disappointed to find out that a Po-Boy is just a longer word for a sub roll and Mufallata is just a fancy way of saying italian hogie.


After we finished our pop corn shrimp on a bun sandwich, we started a hike to the garden district to check out the old mansions and Tulane/Loyola University. I have done this walk a few times during Mardi Gras and I remember it being long but we all needed some exercise after 2 days of driving. What I didn't expect as we started the walk back from Tulane was that Kiwi was done. She wasn't tired from the walk, but her paws were irritated from walking on the hard pavement all day. Thankfully, being the ambassador that she is, she was able to hitch us a ride home w/ a dog-loving rastafarian cab driver who spent most of his time petting her and talking about her her soft ears. Kiwi apprecited the attention but I wished he would have watched the road a little more.


After a quick refresher w/ an hour of mindless AI, we hit the Praline Connection (www.pralineconnection.com) for some down home soul food on Frenchman Street. We quickly learned that neither of us have much soul in us. So we left most of the collard greens ... ok all of the collard greens and hit bourban for some Fat Tuesday action.

Monday Night in New Orleans.

Last night we hit Frenchmen street for a little jazz and a lot of gumbo at the snug harbor jazz club. It was a tourist trap but since it was the only club open on monday it had us trapped. Melissa got to add reason #2346 of why I am cheap to the blog because I thought it was a better deal to watch the jazz band on a closed circuit TV instead of paying the 15 dollars to go upstairs and watch the show live. Anyway, I got to go we are about to go to CostCo for lunch. Free Samples.

The Big Sleazy is coming back and we will be back.

Driving into New Orleans was a surreal experience becuase of all the empty windowless houses that littered the neighborhoods. Katrina had left it scars on the landscape but becuase Kiwi is such a good ambassador we met a lot of people and the general theme was that there was a lot of hope on the horizon for the first time in a long time.
We stayed at the Royal Street Courtyard which was tucked into a residential neighborhood bordering the quarter and when I come back I will be staying there again. It was an excellent experience. http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/SubmitReview.aspx?id=600185

New Orleans on Monday is usually a bit hung over and our first day there was no exception. Every one was recovering from New Orleans Fest and most places were closed, we spent most of the day reliving past transgressions and enjoying the quarter. Bourbon St is exactaly the same, its a constant party and smells like a kennel even though they now power wash every couple of days.
The lowlight of the day for me was when I turned down a free vodka shot... I not only lost my Bourban St mojo but Melissa's respect as well. As the day progressed I only sank further and finally hit rock bottom when I stole Melissa's Mango Strawberry Daquiri while she wasn't looking.

Azalzea City - A Once in a Lifetime Experience

Azalzea City aka Mobile Alabama is a once in a lifetime experience ....................... Now don't mistake the previous sentence as a suggestion that you will need to see mobile once in your life its more like seeing mobile once is enough for a lifetime but either way we enjoyed our short stay in the southern port town.
We visited Dick Russels famous BBQ as we high tailed it out of town and it was an excellent experience.


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Never Been So Happy to see HOTLANTA

We FINALLY made it to HOTlanta via Clemson and Biscuitville after a long day of driving. The drive was very uneventful. The highlight of the drive was when we caught the unclaimed baggage land fever for about an hour and a half in South Carolina. If you don't know what the unclaimed baggage center is, check out this link...http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/,...

Lets just say we were ready to reroute the trip for a couple of days so we could hit the bonaza that is unclaimed baggage but luckily the fever broke and I didn't end up wasting two days at the largest Marshall's on earth. But it was close because we really wanted to pick up the fishing rod that kevin lost 3 years ago and Melissa's forgotten guitar that she cried about for 6 hours, (and Juju's game) but in the end none of those were worth the 2 hours of extra driving time.

Last night, our Atlanta hosts, Amanda & Brad, took us out for a fun low key dinner on the town where we feasted on some home town country cookin' - like alligator bites, calimari, catfish tacos, and zucchini hash.



Right now we're on the road about 15 miles outside of MOBILE, Alabama. We have driven 992 miles at this point. Yes we are driving and blogging.

We are about 3 hours from total panic at the Cobb's House. Come join the fun.

In three hours, it will be 5 PM and my wife will have just finished her last day at Georgetown. I know she will be exhausted from the crazy day of saying goodbye but I am sure that once she sees the house her adrenalin will kick in and she will turn her attention to the three days worth of work we have to fit into 24 hours. Now it might be possible to leave on Sunday if 2 adults put their full attention to the project at hand for 24 hours but we will be slightly distracted by Ol Bowie's party for the Caps game tonight, Marc's 30th party tomorrow and this open house.

Now it will sound strange but everything hinges on UPS. They are scheduled to deliver a package today that will allow us to get into the packing flow. We ordered a weathertech trunk liner for the truck roughly a week ago. (Yes, it was a little last second) So before we can place one suitcase, lawn chair, or the Sam's Club's 30 pack of cool ranch doritos into the truck we need UPS to show up with this liner.

Now, we like to share a good time so come over tomorrow for an open house so you can see what the face of panic really looks like. P.S. Please bring work gloves because we got some mulch delivered today that needs to be laid down.

6 days left. Here is a rough schedule

We got 6 days left before we start this adventure. Here is a brief timeline of the plan.

Sunday April 13th until Saturday May 3rd- Traveling west via Texas and the Southwest


Sunday May 4th to Sunday June 8th - Hermosa Beach, CA


Monday June 9th to June 30th. - Traveling East via the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies.


So if you are out in Cali during this time frame or want to come visit us sometime else during this trip give us a hollar.

The insanity that is the Cobbs.

Now most people who are planning to take a major trip across country would be hustlin to make sure all the small details of the trip are in order. Not the Cobbs we are repainting the house and frantically buying new furniture.

Why you ask?

Because a new coat of paint in the living room and hallway was on the Cobbs checklist. Before the Cobb's can think about new orleans or the grand canyon we need to get our feng-shui on and achieve harmony with one's environment ...... This harmony comes only after a ton of trips to target and 99% of my ideas getting overruled. Yes its insane but you will see that once I finish building the new deck we will find ch'i and be able to concentrate totally on the trip and actually get an itinary planned.

Go Georgtown

Go Georgtown