From Democracy Central to Drum Solos

While I had high school memories of D.C. as a major metropolitan city, it appeared small after my four-day stay in New York. My good friend and host Ryan managed to guide me through the maze of oddly angled streets and roundabouts to his apartment on Pennsylvania Ave, 15 blocks Southwest of the capital. We grabbed a quick bite and some brews at a dive bar a few blocks down and were joined by Glenn, a Bozeman resident we both knew from college. Afterwards, Glenn offered to let me take his motorcycle for a spin in the crisp Washington evening, which I eagerly did. The evening concluded as reawakened visions of cross-country motorcycle trips dancing through my head.

It’s difficult to properly see the nation’s capital in a single day so it was fortunate that I’d been once before with my family. After wolfing down my signature breakfast of pastries and coffee, I went to the Corcoran museum which had two fantastic photography exhibits detailing the work of Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz. I’ve been spoiled with great photographical inspiration throughout the trip as I also saw a fantastic exhibit onRobert Capa, a famous war photographer, while in Chicago. Photography captures my imagination more than any other art form and the work I’ve seen on the trip has motivated me to improve my behind-the-lens skills.

The best part of my D.C. experience was tooling around the city at night in Ryan’s incredibly fun Miata convertible. The weather was mild so we put down the top, blasted the heater and got a jump-start on taming our mid-life crisis. A convertible, I’ve now decided, is something I need to own at least once in my life. Along the route, we stopped to visit Ryan’s girlfriend, Kate, who lives on a really cute bohemian houseboat. I was both curious and impressed as I could see myself doing something similar if I ever faced the decision to forgo eating in order to pay sky-high metropolitan rent.

Hey McCain! You Need a Ride?


Rain in the Capital


A Couple Taking Pictures


No Title Necessary


The more time I spend in big cities, the more I realize how much I love the American West and, in particular, Montana. The next morning, it took me more than an hour to get out of D.C. traffic and on the road. In Great Falls, it took less than five minutes to bike to work. I spent nearly $25 for a hamburger and beer in New York while the same meal in Great Falls would have cost less than $10. While I have different plans for my return, I hope to return one day to the beautiful land of big skies, few people, cheap eats and massive farm subsidies.

Next stop? Hippieville, USA (aka Asheville, NC). Asheville is a quaint college town of 70,000 situated in the Appalachians that has exploded in recent years. Significant development and in-migration has resulted in a lively downtown and rapidly escalating housing prices. My hosts, Patrick and Chris, had an apartmnet in a beautiful and massive Victorian building. Chris took me out on the town and we had shared a pitcher of locally brewed beer over the sounds of a local bluegrass band. Afterwards, we headed over to Chris’ girlfriend’s house for a great evening of drinks, guitar hero, and an inappropriately named card game. I slept under the stars on their porch and got the best night sleep I've had all trip.

The next morning I took the Blue Ridge Parkway out of Asheville. The Parkway, which runs for nearly 500 miles through North Carolina and Virginia, is a scenic roadway which provides breathtaking views as it winds through the Appalachians. Unfortunately, I was able to enjoy the spectacular views of rolling hills only briefly as clouds descended and I was engulfed in fog for the next 100 miles.

Overlooking the Appalachians


Blue Ridge Parkway


Fleeting Moments Before the Fog



I arrived in Nashville amid a torrential rainstorm to meet my host Jeff, a 35 year-old Healthcare IT specialist who lives about 10 miles outside of downtown. As I was eager to explore the world-famous music scene, we soon headed downtown and I wasn’t disappointed. Despite the fact that is was a Wednesday night, we walked around downtown to the sound of music spilling out of nearly every bar we passed. With few places charging a cover, we were free to sample a wide variety of bands as we hopped from place to place. The bands were exceptionally good and left me feeling like a fake, wanna-be third-rate musician. We finally left after 2 a.m. with plans to return the next evening and myself resolving to become a far better guitar player.

I’ll be leaving Nashville tomorrow and I have no idea where I'm headed for the day. While couchsurfing has been fairly smooth so far, I've encountered a few problems on my recent leg of the journey. Despite a number of requests to stay with people in Memphis, New Orelans and Austin, I haven’t heard back from anyone. While I was planning on spending tomorrow night in Memphis, my host strongly recommend skipping it citing sketchy, run-down neighborhoods and general dumpiness. I’m considering traveling the backroads of Alabama and Mississippi, eating in local diners and spending the night in some small, out-of-the-way town. I’ve never been in the South and I’d love to get a feel for the people and culture, something I’d be sure to miss speeding along the interstate. It will be good to escape the cookie-cutter interstate exits and, hopefully, experience some quality Southern home cooking. I'm looking forward to where the road takes me tomorrow......