Travel Blog

Summary: Looking back on 2019, the US is a much different place outside of California. There are few to almost 0 Priuses or electric cars. Instead of $4.00-$5.00 a gallon for gas, $2.00-$3.00 is the norm. Asians are a true numerical minority. Confederate flags fly high in Louisiana. The West has the best national parks. Utah, California, Wyoming. Guns seem to be part of American culture. Widespread poverty and blighted Main Streets. Homeless in all major cities. Is it just the Walmart and Amazon effect? Hasn’t the GNP and economy in general been healthy and improving since 2009? Haven’t we been in a bull market for 10 years now? That’s twice as long as most bull markets last. So many average Americans are missing out. Homeless people in every major city I went to. In Hawaii there are rows of tents lining the beach. In NOLA they live in tents underneath the underpasses. In Silicon Valley, Ca they live in RV’s on the streets of Palo Alto and Mountain View. It may look slightly different in each city, but it is still the same destitute people. In terms of retail stores: Walmart, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores are everywhere. I saw at least one of each in every major town I went to. Some cities had 2 or 3 Walmarts like El Paso Texas. Dunkin Donuts was all over the east coast. Television: Fox News was on almost every TV I saw unless it was a sports bar.

Traditional malls are dying or dead. Sears, JC Penny as the anchor stores of the past are closing left and right leaving the mall without an anchor store. Outlet malls are doing well. I am guessing it is due to the perception of good deals. Smaller stores with less inventory and lower rent. Cheaper rent per square foot since they are further away from the city.

Feb 2021 – Something that I didn’t mention before was the privilege I guess I had to freely travel around the country and focus on photography and my electric car. I did see confederate flags in the south and had one run in with a family in Virginia, but I didn’t need a Green Book or feel unsafe throughout the whole year. I suppose I was lucky since I was traveling before the Covid-19 pandemic and Trump’s racialized and racist characterization of the virus. I’m wondering what other people who have spent a year on the road have experienced. These “Van Life” people never mention experiences with racism but then the only ones I’ve seen on youtube are white.

What I would do differently next time:
Next road trip I plan to take more video to put in a vlog and to embed in a blog like this. Not sure what vlog camera to use: Go Pro Hero 10, my phone Google Pixel 6, Canon M6II or another camera dedicated to vlogging? Also want to set up a camera to show the road and me when I’m driving so I can narrate as I drive into some new town or area. Due to Covid, I’ll also make sure to rent an airbnb where I have the whole place to myself. I’ll avoid hotels next time.

Best Museum: WWII in NOLA, Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn. Philly and DC had great museums too. RandRHOF, in Cleveland, OH. The Country Music HOF, in Nashville, Tenn. I don’t particularly like Country music, but still got a lot out of the museum which is one of the best in the country. I went to Graceland but didn’t pay. It’s super commercialized and unless you are a real fan, it may be a waste of money. Do you want to see Elvis’ living room, cars, planes, and other stuff? It will cost you $61-$174. Since I don’t have one Elvis song in my iTunes library, it didn’t make much sense to spend money to see where he lived.

Best Music: Frenchmen Street in NOLA

Best place I ate: Portland, Maine at Cheevitdee, and Kittery, Maine at the Local Kitchen and Tap. Sadly both have closed according to Yelp.

Best Drink: Neptune’s Monsoon at the Port of Call restaurant in NOLA.

Most amazing sight: Glacier National Park, Going to the Sun Road. Niagara Falls Canada at 10pm from the Rainbow bridge. The drive from Jackson, Wyoming to the Grand Tetons at Sunrise.

Best Hike: Glacier National Park, Logan Pass to Hidden Lake

Worst museum: African American Museum in Philly. It’s a joke really. Yelp review

Worst roads: Detroit and NOLA had the absolute worst roads. (insert pix)

Worst speed trap: NOLA has robots that ticket you if you exceed 1 mph over the limit. Cost is $79 minimum depending on how many miles an hour you are over the limit: 1 through 9 mph – $75, 10 through 14 mph – $110, 15 through 20 mph – $160, Greater than 20 mph – $235. Called Traffic Safety Cameras, they are clearly just a money grab. Familiarize yourself with the location map so you don’t get a ticket. I really hate NOLA for this. You won’t even know you got a ticket until you get home from your vacation since you get it via USPS mail.

Places I recommend for photography: Glacier National Park, Zion National Park, The Grand Tetons, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, Niagara Falls Canada. The East Coast didn’t really appeal to me photographically. The West is so much better for landscape photography.

Tips:

1. Bring your passport and passport card in case you go to Canada or Mexico
2. Sign up with Audible, install on your phone, and download several books.
3. Take pix of all your important documents incase your wallet gets stolen and put on the cloud.
4. Food – Gatorade and Ice Tea are the best since they won’t spoil like juice or milk.
5. Have two coolers, one large and one small. The small one is for your meds, epi pen etc and other items you don’t want to overheat or freeze. The large one for drinks.
6. Buy at least 4 rectangles of the blue ice packs. Put on the top and the food at the bottom.
7. Clothing – Nike compression arm sleeves are the best. I would always carry these with me and when going to the movies, shopping mall, restaurants when the AC is often 5F too cold, I’d just put these on and be comfortable.
8. Clothing pants – Levi’s cargo pants and Nike cargo shorts both have big pockets for gear. When it was cold I’d just wear Levi’s or Dri-Fit thermals underneath Levi’s. When it was really cold, Dri-Fit thermals underneath fleece with a shell on top.
9. Clothing tops – Dri-Fit tops. Depending on how cold, a combo of Dri-Fit thermal, another Dri-Fit layer, fleece, Arcteryx thin insulated jacket, Arcteryx thick insulated jacket, Northface Jackets on top.
10. Music – Rip all your CD’s, create playlists, carry a backup of your library on a solid state drive so you can restore your Mac in case it gets corrupted.
11. Someone hacked into my Mac and I had to erase the disk and reinstall MacOS. Read these articles by CNN, and Huffpost to understand what can happen when connecting to a strangers WiFi. It happened to me. My photos folder, documents folder, and google Chrome app was gone. I had back ups, but not of everything. Once I got to a safe place I changed all my passwords. In general, don’t type in sensitive financial passwords unless you know you’re on a safe WiFi network. A VPN is also another alternative.
12. A solution to 10 above is to have a laptop you never connect to WiFi and have another one that you do with no docs on it.
13. Endgame, John Wick 3, The Farewell, and Yesterday were the only movies worth seeing this summer. Free Solo is on Hulu and was the best movie I saw. I saw it in Jackson, WY where the filmmaker lives. The small theater was packed. This was one of the worst summers for movies that I can remember.

9/1/19- Las Vegas, NV. It’s much more built up now than a few years ago. New houses $300-$400k so still affordable. $400/month for electricity to run the air conditioner and it’s in the 80s at night and over 100F during the day.

8/31-9/1/19 – Phoenix, AZ – A huge city. 100F + during the day and 80’s at night.

8/30/19 – 8/31/19 – Tucson, AZ, too hot here in August. Over 100F during the day and 80s at night. Saguaro National Park. There are two separate and distinct sides to this park. Skip the East side and go to the West Side Visitors Center. Put Hohokam Road into your GPS. It’s a dirt road but is in pretty good shape. This is a tough park to shoot since there is not an obvious spot to take like Yosemite, Yellowstone, or the Grand Tetons. The shots to get are at Valley View Trail and Signal Hill hieroglyphs. It’s a dirt road but a regular 2wd car can handle it. I’m sure there are more shots but these are the two I figured out. I didn’t stay long enough to shoot nor did I drive all the way there so I don’t know about the condition of the dirt road.

8/28/19-8/30/19 – Las Cruces, New Mexico. This is the nearest town to White Sands National Monument. Got up late and didn’t arrive until 7:30. Got to the gate and the park was actually closed until 10:00 for missile testing! Hard to believe. So I got into the park at 10. It’s small, can drive around it in 1-2 hours easily depending on how many stops. It was too hot and the light was bad so I’ll come back another trip during the winter. The white sand reflects the light and heat and adds about 10F to the ambient temperature. No WiFi in the visitors center or cell reception so be careful.

8/27/19 El Paso Texas. This is a massive town with every store imaginable. There is not much to take pix of here besides the Scenic Drive Overlook. Anyways, went to Walmart for drinks, milk, and bananas but it was closed. They closed off the street behind Walmart for a memorial to the people killed there earlier this month. It’s a block long. #elpasostrong all the hash tags, prayers, crosses, candles, flowers make people feel better but gun violence is a public health epidemic that is not being effectively addressed so we can just expect it to continue for the foreseeable future. People were actually taking selfies and posing children for pix in front of the crosses.

I ran into very car conscience people here. Happened to me when I met Taylor in Kittery Maine at the Local Kitchen and Tap. That a worker in El Paso at the chicken joint and it happened in Midland, Texas too at the Schwarma place

8/26/19 Midland, Texas an oil town with terrible tasting drinking water. Don’t drink the water here! I stayed in the only Airbnb available for $50 but a hotel is $150-$250!!! The Airbnb was a dump. Worst Airbnb I’ve stayed at on this trip. How can a dump have great reviews? Cheapest price in town. Very friendly young host. Guests feel sorry for the nice, but financially struggling host and feel compelled to either leave a positive review or none at all. That’s my theory.

115F today!

8/25/19 Dallas Texas. Too hot. 100F. Big Bend is over 100F day and 80F at night so I’m going to bypass it and head to cooler weather somewhere. Tesla chargers here in Dallas are new, the unit is smaller. They also have a handicapped charging station with more space on the sides but they don’t paint it blue so I didn’t even notice it. Rule is to use that space last. This is new. Hotels here are just as cheap as an airbnb or even cheaper so might as well hotel it. Forgot, I saw my first in and out burger here since I left California.

8/24/19 Stax, Rock and Soul, Sun Studio

8/23/19 Memphis, Tennessee. National Civil Rights Museum, Graceland,

8/19/19 – Nashville, Tenn Country Music Hall of Fame

8/17/19 – Louisville, Kentucky – KFC, Ali, Bourbon, Kentucky Derby, State Fair, Louisville Slugger stadium and Factory Museum. 16,600 miles. Drive here was flat and boring. No potholes though. Drove all day from 11am-6pm. 8/18/19 went to my first state fair. Agriculture equipment, robo lawn mowers for $2000, bands playing with no admission, crappy food, livestock displays, a large equestrian section, the worst Chinese food ever. Like epically bad. I should have got a Philly cheese steak.

I’d guess 20% of the people I saw were obese. Both women below are much more obese than the picture indicates and yes, they are eating a massive funnel cake! My gawd. This is America. Not the Childish Gambino’s America, but the America that I see. Fox News on every TV. Ford F-150’s. Gas for $1.99-$2.99 a gallon. Trump/Pence 2020 signs. Guys with T shirts that say, “just try and take it” with an image of an AR-15, Poor diets. Obese people.

If you are into baseball or woodshop I would recommend the Louisville Slugger factory museum tour. I wanted to buy a softball bat, but they didn’t have any! Uggh.

8/16/19 Hotel – Akron, Ohio. This hotel was $70 but 3+ stars despite bad yelp reviews. Couldn’t find any airbnb’s in the area. Between the Cuyahoga NP and on the way to Louisville.  Cuyahoga Valley National Park is the only National Park in Ohio and the only one I’ve been to that didn’t charge an entrance fee. Brandywine Falls below was easy to access and pretty good, but other than that not much here.

8/15/19 – Cleveland, Ohio – Cavs, RaRHOF, I stayed in Ohio City. I recommend this city just outside of Cleveland.

The RaRHOF was cool. I can’t believe there was no Chuck Berry display though. How can that be? The Motown display was pretty good.

The Garage area was cool if you play or sing, you can have a jam session there.

Still, the Rock and Roll name is not really accurate. American music would be better, but still isn’t right since the Beatles and the Stones etc. I dunno. Taylor Swift had a very small display but her and Beyonce are the biggest names in American music for the last decade. Beyonce had *no* display of her own…

8/10/19 Arrived in Detroit. Michigan – Motown. Ford. F150. Vincent Chin

Drove from Niagara through Canada. Road was flat and boring. Limit is 100 km/h so I changed over the speedo. People drive about 10-20% faster. Cool that there are road signs listing exactly how much the fine is for going 120, 130, 140 km/h. Tesla supercharging is much cheaper here, like half price or less. Need to calculate it. Weather is great, 70-80F.

Commenting on the Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton shootings my friend said, “Be safe where you go. These mass shootings make it not safe to be anywhere anymore. so sad.” The reality is how can I stay safe or reduce the probability that I’ll get shot? I go to Walmart in every town I go to. I plan to go to El Paso to see Big Bend National Park next month. I will most likely go to that Walmart. I can be safe when I go hiking by being on the look out for bears with binoculars, carrying bear spray, traveling in a group. How exactly can I stay safe going to Walmart? I’m now aware of where the exits are just like they taught us in the Active Shooter workshop I took through school workshop many years ago. Beyond that, what can anyone do?

Detroit is French for De troit = Narrow or strait.

Motown Museum was a major dud. Here’s my Yelp review. Detroit has widespread blight, insufficient, damaged, and deteriorating infrastructure. Omg, the roads around Detroit are just a potholed mess. Not even potholed, but every 20-30 feet there’s a perpendicular crack and raised area in the asphalt that creates a bump. So irritating to drive over. Not sure how they formed but I hate driving here. They are also repaving large sections and the manholes are 3-4″ higher than the rest of the road so a driver has to avoid them like land mines. Detroit also has a street car line which surprised me. Only 12 stops but that’s better than 0. Ironic that the area known for car manufacturing has the absolute worst roads in America.

The Ford Rouge Factory tour is definitely worth the time. To see an F150 being made was interesting. They wouldn’t let us take any pix inside the factory.

Compared to the Tesla factory, this factory used very few robots at least at the state of production that I saw. You won’t be able to get a Tesla tour unless you know someone that works there, but I got a tour a couple of years ago and the robots and level of automation were amazing.

The Ford Museum is also worth going to. This is the bus that Rosa Parks got kicked off of.

This is the Michigan Central Station in Detroit’s Corktown area, abandoned but Ford plans to spend $740 million to remodel it for self driving technology development.

8/6/19 Arrived at Niagara Falls

Just like Terry my airbnb host said, the area around the Falls is struggling financially, blighted, with deteriorating infrastructure. Luckily I’m staying about 20 minutes from the Falls in a suburb in a newer house so I lucked out. The trip from Rochester was straight forward, but I did hit a thunderstorm so intense I considered pulling over. In the summer, Niagara Falls has fireworks every night at 10pm!!! They last about 6 minutes.

Aug 9, 2019 M3, 28mm, f/8, 9 seconds, Bulb, ISO 100, Manual exposure and focusing.

Driving from Lewiston NY to Niagara Falls NY down Main Street the poverty, blight, vacant building are salient and palpable. I made this trip multiple times and was always struck by the decline of Main Street here and in so many other cities around the US yet the economy is the best it’s been in recent history. The US GDP has been trending up since 2009 when Obama pulled us out of the financial crisis. Unemployment has also been trending down from 9.9% in 2009 to 3.9% in 2018. The poverty rate has also been trending down since 2012. How is it there is so much blight, poverty, and homeless people? The divisiveness, anxiety and even fear of another mass shooting is also palpable.

8/4/19-8/5/19 Rochester

High Falls and the George Eastman Museum. High Falls was worth it but the Eastman museum was a waste of $15. If you want to see the massive house and garden of an old rich guy from the 1800’s then this is the place. If you are interested in the history of photography, how Kodak was born and evolved, how Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Lumiere, Ektar, and Portra films were conceived, engineered, and born then this is the wrong place. If you want to talk to a docent about how Kodak missed the digital photography train and got left behind then you’ll be disappointed. What is the current state of Kodak today? What about Kodachrome? Gone forever, but no one to discuss that with at this museum. If not here, where? BTW, there’s a movie on Netflix titled Kodachrome that was pretty good, though Kodachrome plays a small but very significant part of the plot. I’ve only shot 1-2 rolls of Kodachrome since I like the color of Ektachrome 100, 100s, 100sw much better.

8/3/19 left Boston

8/1/19 The Farewell! Awkwafina

7/29/19 Boston, Mass

7/31/19 Raining! Thunderstorms

Rye, New Hampshire

7/23/19- Eliot, New Hampshire

Lucked out and got a great Airbnb for $80/night with fees. Ron the host was great to talk to. A short drive to Kittery or Portsmouth a great walkable city with a variety of places to eat every step. Kittery has a Trading Post with every outdoor item you could possibly want.  The outlets there are pretty good  especially the New Balance one.

7/20/19-7/22/19

Acadia National Park, Maine in the 80’s F but it feels like 90’s, it even rained a little 7/21/19. Staying in Lamoine, Maine. Most of the great shots in this park are coastal or inland with bodies of water in the foreground. The lighthouses in the background are a pretty standard background subject. GNDs are a requirement to take good photos. I used 7 stops below:

Canon M3: 1/2 sec, f/16, 17mm, ISO 100. 5+2 stop GND for 7 stops total! First time I’ve had to do that. Tourists getting into your composition is a common problem. Below is an iPhone X shot with no photoshopping, just resized it. The built in HDR software does a great job handling 7 stops with no problem. Notice the guy in the middle of the shot.

iPhone cameras will take over the stand alone camera market. Not just the point and shoot but low end DSLRs too since the image quality just keeps getting better and who doesn’t carry their phone ? Canon and Nikon have to put better HDR software in their cameras and save to raw.

Acadia is not the usual national park where you pay an entrance fee and drive into it. It’s embedded inside other towns so you get a parking pass / receipt that you have to display.  Potholes and aggressive hungry mosquitos seem to be everywhere. Find a good insect repellent. On the way out, I found Seafood Ketch. Had a pretty good lobster.

7/18/19-7/19/19

Portland, Maine

Highly recommend this bike rental place Encyclepedia and taking a ride around the area. It’s only $20 for 4 hours or $30 all day so a good deal and great scenery. Bring your own water bottle, helmet, and lock, but if you don’t have them they can provide for an extra fee. Park in the lot behind for $15 for 24 hours. Lots of places to eat, but I recommend Cheevitdee for some excellent Thai food. The iPhone X color and image quality is amazing, as good as a DSLR for casual web pages. No wonder Canon is expecting profits to be down 40% or $1.85B USD this year.

7/17/19

Freeport, Maine

I went to charge in Freeport Maine. There is a supercharger with free J plug chargers right in the same lot.  I recommend shopping and eating in the area and charging at the free J plugs. If you need more when you get back use the supercharger.  I like getting free juice.  The best thing about this town is the massive and I mean massive LL Bean stores there. They have multiple buildings on a campus but the main building with the gun shop has more rifles and shotguns than I’ve ever seen anywhere. Hunting is very popular in this area and that’s who they cater to. The crazy thing? They are open 24 hours! Hunters and fisherman get up really early and may need a license or gear before heading out so I guess it makes sense.

This is about half of the rifles and shotguns LL Bean had at their store!

Yes, they have an amazing aquarium with fish people fish for in rivers and streams. They even have a temperature controlled trout pond!

7/13/19

Roy Moore Lobster Co, three lobsters for $40.

Halibut Point State Park. An hour plus drive from Boston but worth it for some sunset pix. Kung Fu Tea back in Boston.

7/7/19

Amazing homemade soufflé pancakes! Best in Boston.

7/6/19

Drove to Boston in the pouring rain! Had a great dinner!

7/5/19

Went to Cape Cod National Sea Shore. Beautiful area. Provincetown is an interesting place, very similar to the Castro District back in SF. Traffic and parking are both terrible. There’s only one road in and out so traffic can be bumper to bumper. Not sure when the best time to go in or come out is. On 7/23/19 Cape was hit with a couple of rare tornados! Glad I wasn’t around for that.

7/3/19-7/6/19 Cape Cod – Falmouth, Massachusetts

This is on the southern end of Cape Cod. There’s a super charger at the mall in Mashbee. More tourists in this area downtown, but houses can be bought for only $400-$500k. Big houses and big lots. Got up at 5:00am to shoot the sunrise. So peaceful and relaxing.

7/4/19 5:27am – Canon 6D Mark II, f/16, 1/10 sec, ISO 100, 41mm, 3 stop GND, Photoshop CS6 +50 Shadows, +40 Clarity, +40 Vibrance, +30 Saturation.

Happy Fourth of July!

Bristol Beach, Massachusetts

7/4/19 9:01pm – Canon M3, f/8, 9 sec, ISO 100, 28mm, manual exposure and focus. Photoshop CS6 +0.80 Exp, -43 Highlights +90 Shadows, +20 Clarity, +10 Vibrance.

As far as I can tell, there is no racial diversity here at all. The Thai and Chinese restaurants excepted. On Bristol Beach before the fireworks show, this kid offered me some watermelon. I politely declined and then as I walked past him and his family I found out they had dropped that piece and then heard some racial remarks about ordering Chinese takeout that the dad was making with his family all laughing (Cream of some young guy). This is the first racist encounter I’ve had on the trip that I am aware of, so much less than I would have guessed when I started the trip. It reinforces how racism gets passed down through the parents to their children.

7/2/19-7/3/19 Cape Cod – Dennis Port, Massachusetts

Home made ice cream, littering fines, miniature golf courses, rotarys, and plenty of seafood restaurants.

Homemade ice cream stores litter the area. Every 3-7 blocks a new one will appear. Cape Codians love their ice cream! Littering fine? Up to $15,000!  I haven’t seen any on the ground so I guess it works. Seems a little extreme but effective.

Every 3-15 blocks is a miniature golf course! Of course there are a number of seafood restaurants here.

Roundabouts are popular here but they call them Rotarys.

Staying in Dennis Port, Massachusetts. Saw Spiderman: Far from Home. More of a teen movie with superheroes. The cheap hotel ($63) I was staying at had some domestic violence issue going on in the room beneath mine at midnight, so I booked another place across the street for $140 but could sleep in peace. Moved south to Falmouth, Massachusetts

7/1/19-7/2/19 Brooklyn, Connecticut

Heading up to Brooklyn, Connecticut. $15 toll on George Washington bridge! Super bad traffic at noon. I can’t imagine commute hours.  What a mess. Would definitely not want to live here. Then the traffic cleared and it was smooth sailing.  Staying in Brooklyn, Connecticut.  My Airbnb is a farm with a massive house and lot.  They have 110v and 220v but a different plug configuration so stuck with 110v. Hosts are cool with 3 dogs. There is a covered bridge like the Bridges of Madison County movie with Clint Eastwood. Amazing structure. My airbnb co-host built it so I talked to him about it. Very impressive! Spent the morning shooting it at sunrise with my M3. Weather was overcast.

The workmanship is amazing. Do you see the two birdhouses? Very cool. But why cover a bridge? To protect the wooden construction from sun, rain, snow, and cold so it lasts longer.

Photo Notes: After shooting this I put the SD card into my Mac and it wasn’t recognized. I used Disk Utility and it saw the disk but couldn’t mount it and said it was full when it wasn’t. I then looked at pix on the camera and they were all fine. I tried plugging the USB cord into the camera then into my Mac but that didn’t work. Used EOS Utility 3 and that did the trick. After getting my images off, I formatted the disk, shot some images, plugged card into my Mac and it showed up just fine. So, format the disk once in a while to make sure the Mac will recognize and read from it.

The other thing, a full frame camera DSLR or MILC would not do a better job at this resolution and the application of putting images on a website. In fact, carrying all the gear to this site would have been a huge negative. I will only use my full frame if I plan to enlarge to a size bigger than 12×18. Otherwise, I’ll just shoot my M cameras. The White Castle image below is from my iPhone. Why use a real camera when you know it’s just for a webpage? However, sometimes I want the interchangeable lenses for some application eventhough it’ll only go on a website.

6/29/19-7/1/19 Piscataway Township, New Jersey

White Castle – I first saw this in a Harold and Kumar movie several years ago. I didn’t know if it was even real, but yeah, it is real. My first trip to White Castle. Pretty good. It’s not really the In and Out of the East Coast though. They have sliders or 1/3 size burgers. More variety than In and Out for sure. Fish, veggie burger, Impossible burger, etc. So Piscataway Township is way better than Elizabeth, but the drive here was unbelievable. The infrastructure is the most poorly designed I’ve encountered after driving 13,000 miles in the US this year. Tolls, confusing roads, poorly thought out highway system, easily to get lost or make a wrong turn that will take you 10 miles out of your way even with GPS. Yes, a wrong turn could mean adding 10 miles to the trip.

6/30/19 Pride Parade, BandH, Uber, NY Subway. The infrastructure from New Jersey into Manhattan though Staten Island is just a potholed unfriendly mess. Driving in I was hit with a $20 toll via mail apparently on the way in AND on the way back out on the Staten Island bridge. I don’t see how people can afford to live and drive here. Parked underground near the Barclay’s Center and got free charging, but the parking for 5+ hours was $20. So I took an Uber into Manhattan so I wouldn’t have to park etc. Though the app quoted me $20, when I got the bill it was $30 due to congestion and mileage fees that I’ve never been charged in any other city. Take the subway for $3 instead. Uber dropped me off a few blocks from Adorama where I was headed but the Pride Parade wasn’t crossable so I had to bail on that and walked 22 blocks to bandh. Going back home the subway station I was at didn’t have a large enough map so I could figure out what train to get on and there was no station agent. The infrastructure is just poorly designed and maintained making it difficult for tourists. I really don’t like New York much.

Why do I take Uber? One of the big advantages is the drivers can be very knowledgeable about the local scene and can give me great tips on where to go and what to do and what to avoid.

6/28/19-6/29/19 Elizabeth, New Jersey

On the way here from Atlantic City I must have had to stop and pay toll 4-5 times. One place had like 6 booths but only one took cash. Another time there was no human workers there, but a machine that gave out a ticket and then you pay it at the next toll booth. Odd. Get an Easy Pass? What if I’m just passing through?

I’m staying on Van Buren Ave. What a dump. Industrial. Traffic. 7 blocks from the train station to get into NYC, but all the camera stores close early on Friday and all day Saturday! Crap. I’ll have to stay here until Sunday night just to go to the camera stores. The airbnb, well my housemate is kind of weird. We share a pantry cabinet so I opened the door and gross, it was full of ants and flies. Yuck.  Only one night and then I’m out of here.

Went to the local movie theater Jersey Gardens AMC. $13 for a ticket. Saw Yesterday. So far, it is the best movie of the summer. If you like the Beatles and want to see a Rom Com. There was some interesting stuff in it. Email me after you see it since I was wondering about 3 things. Still, an Asian male in the lead? Of a rom com?  A white female love interest? He’s a talented musician and singer too. When have we seen that? Never. The interracialality of their relationship is never even hinted at in the script. Go see it and let’s discuss.

General: Income inequality and stratification is rampant through out this trip. From Oahu to Jersey to NOLA and Virginia, it’s everywhere. Homeless people living in tents, passed out on the sidewalk and then a few miles away are mansions with expensive cars in the driveways. In Richmond, Virginia I stayed at the Red Roof Inn a few blocks from the Philip Morris factory. In the parking lot of Philip Morris there are all the expensive cars you can name and just around the corner on Jefferson Davis Highway are hookers walking the street and cheap hotels to facilitate their trade.

6/26/19-6/28/19 Atlantic City, New Jersey

The road from Philly to Atlantic City is smooth and people drive up to 80 mph on it. However, at night it is full of cops near Atlantic City so don’t speed. The boardwalk is long and has numerous places to eat. There are tolls along the road, like $0.40-0.75 cents as I recall. Have change ready since some toll roads don’t take bills or credit cards. You just throw the coins into a bucket. Getting out of Atlantic City it’s $0.75 but they have toll takers there.

I saw Jersey Boys since I’m here in Jersey. Great show! Saw it twice. A great deal at $50-$70 including fees. Parking at the Hard Rock is $10. Best line from the movie, “If there are 4 guys and you’re Ringo, well…” on why he left the group.

Hard Rock Memorabilia: Who knew so many artists were from New Jersey? Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Prince, Paul Simon. They have lots of memorabilia at the Hard Rock of famous people. Guitars, outfits, handwritten lyrics, pictures, shoes, etc. If you can tolerate the cigarette smoke it’s worth a look around.

I’m not into clothes or fashion but thought that this outfit was pretty cool. Prince wore it during the 1988 Grammy Awards. Prince, George Michael, and Whitney Houston were the three singers from the 1980’s that I didn’t see in concert.

Housing: Stayed in Egg Harbor, New Jersey in a private room and bathroom, off street parking with a 120v plug. It’s a 20 min drive into Atlantic City. Paid $63/night with fees, but only $47 when paying cash/paypal.

Tesla: There are 2 Tesla chargers on the first and second level of the Hard Rock parking garage. It’s free! Second level has one J plug and one Tesla. 40mph

6/17/19-6/25/19 Philly

The Fresh Prince, Rocky, and Philly Cheese Steaks. Yep, those are the 3 things people associate Philly with, me included. I Uber pooled though West Philly and it is blighted. Pretty bad, though an Uber passenger said that Will Smith is from another part of West Philly and not the part we were in.

Museums: The museums are quite good and all walking distance from each other. However, the African American Museum is terrible, absolutely the worst I’ve been to and a waste of $14. I would skip it all together. Read my yelp review for more details. Go to the one in DC as I hear it is amazing, free, but you have to get tickets ahead of time as it sells out. The Constitution and American Revolution museums are recommended. Plan on 3 hours in each. The Museum of Art was meh, huge, but I didn’t care for the art that was on display except for this American artist:

The Rocky statue and footprints are right in front of the Museum of Art. There is a line to take pix in front of the statue. There is even a staff worker there to help you take pictures and move the line along quicker.

The Mint was free and worth a look, though they don’t have any docents. I wonder if we’ll be a cashless and coinless society at some point in the future, or at least there will be much less in circulation in the future. No docents to discuss this with though.

Food: The cheesesteaks. Larry’s is okay, a 3/5, Jim’s is a 4/5 but the wait was 45 min and parking is tough. On South Street meter maids swarm the area and are just waiting to give out tickets so be careful. South Street is a cool street to walk up and down. It reminded me of Telegraph Ave in Berkeley before it deteriorated into its current state. I plan to go back to Philly and try: Delasandros, Cleavers, Chubbys, all recommended my Uber drivers or riders. Chinatown was pretty good. Large and cleaner than SF’s or Oakland’s Chinatown. They had a Lantern Festival for $20 that was okay.

Transportation: Parking is $20 so I figured I’d just uber in and out of town. Uber drivers except for one were quite good with lots of advice on where to sight see and eat. It’s better than taking the bus since no one talks to each other on the bus. The potholes are severe! Be careful driving at night. I didn’t take the subway or streetcar, I just drove and Uber’d around.

Housing: You can airbnb 20 minutes from downtown for $35-$55/night.

I liked Philly.

6/10/19-6/16/19 – West Falls Church, Virginia

A suburb 20 minutes driving or 12 metro stops from DC. This is a great area. Large houses. Large lots. Safe area. I put an ad on out on cl and a very nice family in Falls Church answered and I stayed at their house for a week. I’d stay in this area again.

6/8/19-6/10/19 – East Falls Church, Virginia

June 2, 2019-June 8, 2019 – Arlington, Virginia

May 29, 2019- May 31, 2019 – Savannah, Georgia

This is a town I’d like to come back to and explore. I didn’t get enough time here, hopefully on the way back. The two stops in Florida below were unmemorable.

May 28, 2019- May 29, 2019 – Daytona Beach, Florida

May 27, 2019- May 28, 2019 – Orlando

May 2, 2019- May 27, 2019 – California

March 18, 2019- May 2, 2019 – Hawaii

I had to be in Hawaii for a March 23, 2019 Wedding. So happy for my friend Catherine. Had a great time in Hawaii. Air is clean, food is pretty good. Lots of activities.

March 14-18, Orlando, Florida

So the whole Florida experience was not impressive at all. I had a March 23, 2019 wedding Hawaii to make and Orlando had the cheapest flight so I drove to Orlando and stored my car in a public storage facility.

March 13-14, Gainesville, Florida

Worst airbnb I have stayed at on this trip. Avoid this airbnb – Private room-Walking distance to UF hosted by Natalia. What a dump.

March 12-13, Tallahassee Florida

March 10-12, 2019 Pensicola Florida

March 2, 2019-March 10, 2019 – New Orleans, Slidell, Louisiana

Feb 13-March 2, California

Jan 10-Feb 13, 2019 Slidell, Louisiana

When I was in Louisiana, a woman I talked to thought SoCal was a city in California

Dec 28-Jan 2 Metarie, Louisiana

Dec 26-Dec 27, 2019 Baton Rouge

Houston, San Antonio, Las Cruces, Tucson, Tempe, Bryce, Hurricane, Page, Salt Lake City,

August 2018 Columbia Falls, Montana

1. Dinosaur National Park – The Quarry Exhibit Hall is a must see at this park. There is an epic shot (insert it here, iphone) but it is a half hour hike over moderate terrain. There are no Tesla chargers nearby in Vernal, UT. There is only one Class 2 Chargepoint charger at the Dinosaur Inn. It costs $1.00/hour and will continue to cost even after the car has completed charging. I also charged at the RV park, but the voltage fluctuated so much that it was difficult to get the charger to start charging. The owner also charged me an outrageous $10 to charge. I recommend staying and charging at the Dinosaur Inn. The popular shot that you’ll see (insert it here) is a half hour off road drive. A 4wd vehicle is required? so I didn’t take it.
2. Arches National Park – There are two Tesla Supercharger locations in town so no worries about charging though I found a wide fluctuation in charging speeds, 100-300mph depending on the charger. If you charge at 100-150 and there are no other cars plugged in, try a different charger since they can be great variation in speed at the same same supercharger station. Moab has great mountain biking. There are several arches and turn outs to stop at. The most popular arch to shoot is a (?) hike, so not an easy or quick shot, especially to get in sunrise or sunset. You’ll have to hike in the dark to get a good shot. I didn’t. The La Sal Mountains can be an amazing shot at sunset. I recommend a 70-300. This was my second visit to the park and I had limited time, but still got the shot.
3. Monument Valley – This is not a National Park since it is part of the Navajo Nation. It is an absolute must see. One of the best photographic areas in the US. The monuments are a sunset shot if shooting from the hotel area. I recommend staying at the hotel there since the town is over 30 minutes away.

General travel things I learned:

1. Keep all your prescriptions at CVS or Walgreens since they seem to be in just about any town you go to. Since I’ve been using Amazon’s Pillpack mail pharmacy, not sure what I’d do if I was on the road for more than a month now. I suppose they could just send you the Rx to a new address.
2. Besides Starbucks, the public library is a great place to hang out, get free wi-fi, rip CDs and DVDs, print boarding passes etc.
3. Yelp, airbnb, cl, tripadvisor, meetup, hoteltonight, are all super valuable
4. Fireworks are legal damn near everywhere but California it seems. There are stand alone booths totally dedicated to fireworks and even brick and mortar stores! Louisiana, Florida, etc
5. Guns are widely accepted, revered, or looked at like a tool to get a job done. However, these are usually rifles and shotguns designed for hunting, not assault rifles. Wyoming and Maine, is where I talked to people at length, but feel it’s like this in most states where hunting is widespread. The outdoor store Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine had a massive selection of any gun you could possibly want. LL Bean in Freeport, Maine had a massive selection of rifles and shotguns but no handguns or assault rifles. They are strictly catering to hunters here. As I write this blog entry there was a shooting at Walmart in Southaven, Mississippi and an indiscriminate mass shooting in Gilroy, Ca. Gun violence in America seems like it will never be addressed or solved adequately. The Daily Show part 1 and part 2 subverts access as the main and only issue. I know, the Daily Show but is the content accurate? This is such a complex and nuanced social, cultural, socioeconomic class, public health, and legal issue. Laws don’t seem to work. California bans assault rifles but the shooter in Gilroy bought his legally in Nevada and then brought it back to California. How could a government stop that? Manufacturers easily circumvent any law passed banning their weapons. How pervasive are these mass shootings? Gunviolence archive has some data. Here is a map from Vox. As you can see it’s an epidemic that averages out to an almost daily event here in the US. Still, the mass shootings are not the events were the most life is lost. According to everytownresearch Gun suicides are 2/3’s of the gun deaths. The other 1/3 are homicides. I imagine there is a percentage of accidental gun deaths too. There doesn’t seem to be an agreed upon definition for mass shooting oddly. Mass shootings in California: Rare but increasingly deadly. Some Walmarts have no guns or ammo. Dick’s sporting goods only had hunting guns, no handguns or assault rifles whatsoever.
6. Airbnb hosts seem to love these liquid plug in air fresheners. I’d guess that 70% of my hosts have these things in the house or bedroom. The worst was an airbnb that was an old musty house with a smelly dog that used these in every outlet instead of just cleaning and airing out the place. Luckily I only spent one night there.
7. Hobby Lobby seems to be popular and the outdoor malls even to the point that it’s considered an anchor store. I’m here in Piscataway, NJ and there’s an empty space that used to be the Hobby Lobby in Middlesex Mall.
8. Malls are dying. I’ve seen dead malls where 50% of the spaces are vacant. Hawaii, Richmond Virginia, etc. It’s pretty bad for the brick and mortar retailer in a mall.
9. Target and Walmart stores. Targets are not always easy to find. Walmarts however are almost everywhere, whether in Lamoine, ME or Slidell, LA there’s a Walmart.  Jackson Wy didn’t have one but they did have a Kmart and two Dollar stores.
10. There is a lot of poverty and blight through out the whole US as far as I can tell. Tent cities underneath overpasses in NOLA. Tent lines along the beach on Oahu Hawaii.
11. Dollar stores are everywhere. There may be more than one in a small town. Everyone seems to shop here but especially people who are struggling financially. The stores can be concentrated in racial enclaves as well as cities that are seemingly 100% white. No one escapes these stores. These stores almost coerce whole families in to buy food with the promise of everything for $1.00. Processed and canned food for $1.00, it’s hard to resist. Not exactly healthy but it is affordable. I shop at these stores but mainly for juice, gatorade, and cereal. CNN and Newsweek have written articles about it. Still, it is possible to find good food at these stores and other good deals, but the selections are very limited and as the default grocery store, it’s sad to see these stores concentrated across America.
12. Income inequality and homelessness is rampant through out this trip. From Oahu to Jersey to NOLA and Virginia, it’s everywhere. Homeless people living in tents, passed out on the sidewalk and then a few miles away are mansions with expensive cars in the driveways. In Richmond, Virginia I stayed at the Red Roof Inn a few blocks from the Philip Morris factory. In the parking lot of Philip Morris there are all the expensive cars you can name and just around the corner on Jefferson Davis Highway are hookers walking the street and cheap hotels to facilitate their trade. Back in the Bay Area the homeless problem is getting worse and worse. These articles appeared in the SF Chronicle on Aug 1, 2019. Oakland surpasses other large California cities in per capita homelessness. and this, 24 hours inside SF’s homelessness crisis. and this, Bay Area homelessness: 89 answers to your questions.   But in reality this is a problem throughout the US. It’s really sad. I remember how it started in the 80’s but recently it has gotten so much worse.
13. Fox News – Sitting at a bar and burger joint called Blackcow in Portland, Maine and the guys are discussing antifa. Oddly these guys sound like anti trumpers. Glad no one asked me may opinion. Fox News is the standard news program whether I was in Slidell LA, Bryce Canyon Utah, Orlando Fl, etc etc. It is pervasive. I have to be careful about where I go and what I say. Best to remain neutral with no opinion about politics. How did Fox News rise to prominence? How can people believe what they hear on this one and only news station? Why not diversify your information sources? It’s a mystery.
14. White privilege is so palpable on this trip. White people can go anywhere and have no worries. At a racial level. At a political level they may have to hide their anti Trump Administration opinion, but at a racial level they can go anywhere I’ve been and have no worries. Yes, even Orleans Ave in NOLA I saw a few white people out of the thousands during Mardi Gras.
15. For July 4th I was in Bristol Beach, Massachusetts, there is no racial diversity here at all. The Thai and Chinese restaurants excepted. On Bristol Beach before the fireworks show, this kid offered me some watermelon. I politely declined and then as I walked past him and his family I found out they had dropped that piece and then heard some racial remarks about ordering Chinese takeout that the dad was making with his family all laughing (Cream of some young guy). This is the first racist encounter I’ve had on the trip that I am aware of, so much less than I would have guessed when I started the trip. It reinforces how racism gets passed down through the parents to their children.
16. There are Asian nail salons in almost every city I go to. Who knew this was so popular?
17. There are Asian massage parlors at most cities I go to, even smaller ones where you see no other Asians. Chinatowns have legit places though since I will go in to them and get a foot massage after walking around all day. It helps to speak a little Mandarin.

Airbnb

1. Though a place can have 5 star reviews, it could be in a blighted, industrial, area far away from good public transportation. I stayed in Elizabeth, NJ is an area I wouldn’t want to stay in again.
2. So much better than a hotel since you get people to talk to and hang out with.
3. Generally cheaper than a hotel

Amazon

1. You can order stuff on Amazon and have it sent to an Amazon locker. Super convenient. I highly recommend doing this, just time it correctly so you’ll be in that town when the items arrive.

Ebay

1. If you buy anything, make sure to add in a new address to your PayPal account so the seller will ship it to you there. Some won’t ship to anything but the verified address so check with them.

Tesla

1. Buy all four 220v charging adaptors. I have used all of them on this trip. Have the 50amp and two 30 amp adaptors so you can charge up in garage dryer plugs, and RV parks. I ran into another the NEMA 6-50 used by welders and electric ovens so I couldn’t charge since I didn’t have that adaptor. They are one $35 and can get you out of a tough situation. There is a 2-3 week delivery time so order before you leave on your trip.
2. RV park voltage fluctuates and the charger will refuse to charge, but if you leave it plugged in, it will start to charge when the voltage evens out and oddly will continue to charge. I suppose I got lucky but it didn’t seem like it.
3. Use the Sentry Mode since you never know what area you might travel to and park your car. However, it draws juice, like 10 miles a day, maybe more so be aware of that.
4. Install the charge point app and make sure it works. It takes weeks to get the card so plan ahead of time or have someone at your home address to send it to you.
5. Some garages have no wifi or cellular reception so it’s a good idea to have a Chargepoint card since the app won’t be able to connect to their network. I only used Chargepoint brand of chargers besides the Tesla superchargers. I haven’t found a need to use any of the other brands. I don’t really see them around. There was one charging station in a Walmart (fill in city?) that had the fast chargers but Model 3 doesn’t have those ChaDemo adaptors as of yet as I recall.
6. For some reason the Sentry Mode is not sticky so you have to reset it to On every time you use it. Annoying. It takes up energy since I noticed my mileage decreasing while it was engaged. Like 10-15 miles throughout the night. This is significant so keep that in mind.
7. There is animosity towards the cars and owners. In Cape Cod I pulled into a $60 a night hotel, the cheapest one in town and these beer drinking guys said, Oh, you think you’re better than us cuz you drive a Tesla? I moved across the street to the $120/might place but got a good nights sleep. Holiday inn in Metairie near NOLA gas cars park in our charging spots. Jackson Wy grocery store shoppers will park in our space even when there are plenty of other spaces. Note the spaces are shared but why would you park there if there are plenty of other spaces? I noticed an attitude from the people that parked there too.
8. Only problems I’ve had is back up camera doesn’t immediately show the back view. The passenger side mirror did not retract twice when the car was turned on. I’ve also had my car reboot spontaneously for no particular reason. A bit unsettling and I lose my GPS since the screen goes black, but it comes back on after a minute or less. Other than that, the car has been perfect.
9. GPS will be off by 1-4 blocks when taking you to a supercharger. Don’t panic. Just drive around for a few blocks and if you can’t find it ask someone at a store since they’ll probably know.
10. Philly was the worst for supercharging or charge point charging since all of the chargers were located in paid lots that cost $2-$10/hour. Best to charge before getting into Philly and charge up at your airbnb.
11. Boston was also difficult to charge. The Chargepoint charger closets to me was on the street so you have to pay the meter $2.00/hour. I’ve never seen a charger on a public street like this. The worst is that out of 4 chargers, 3 were not functioning. Though 2 were marked as such the third one wasn’t but I figured out it wasn’t going to charge after working with tech support for 15 minutes on the phone trying to get it to work. There seems to be anti electric car sentiment here too as you can see from the damage to chargers that people cause. So senseless.