A Lame City With Awesome People (aka Salem, OR)

"Yes'm, old friends is always best, 'less you can catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of." - Sarah Orne Jewett

 Initially my stop in Salem was supposed to be brief.  I was meant to come and stay for two nights - mostly owing to the fact I figured Salem would be really boring.  Little did I know I would encounter two of the most awesome hosts of the trip!   Aj and his room mate Bob were spectacular hosts.  I could not find a host in Seattle (which was my next destination) and so they just let me stay.  I ended up staying for six nights - one of which included a fantastic Halloween party (minus the guy high on heroin trying to attack me...).  

Unfortunately I did not take a lot of pictures during any of my stay in Salem.  So here are some details...  Aj and Bob had a couple of house guests.  One of them was Aj's Marine buddy Dean.  For those of you wanting to know, Dean was awesome!  He is obnoxious (like me, so I enjoyed it) and hilarious and just an all around good time.  His girlfriend, Kate, also came to town!  She is from Canada - and similar to all the other Canadians I have met on this trip - she rocks!  Dean was kind enough to take Kate and I to our first gun store (eek), which was an adventure.  Kate is amazingly creative - just check out Dean's hand made Halloween costume and adorable.  Her laugh is completely contagious.  

I met some other friends of theirs one night when we went to dinner.  Everyone I met while I was in Salem, from my hosts, to their friends to the senior citizens I met at yoga - was kind, generous and amazing.  I hope I stay friends with Aj and clan for a long time.  I already want to go back to Salem for Halloween 2011! 

So here are the few pictures I have (all of the party ones I stole from Aj)...enjoy!

We went to Goodwill in search of best costume trophies...keep reading to see the final product.

Dean hard at work.

If you knew you would get to take home The Death Metal Gold Baby, wouldn't you try harder at your next costume endeavor?

Carving pumpkins!

This is a sideways Aj carving his pumpkin...in the background is the prison rapebow.  Yeah, I composed a rainbow full of prison rape haikus (no, we did not write them ourselves) - what's scarier than that?!  All you need to know is this:  Mayonnaise is not / A sexual lubricant / Except in prison.

 

 

Zombie nurse!

Bob (aka Hunter S. Thompson) making home made grain alcohol (which I never ended up trying).

James and Kara (scarecrow and Rainbow Brite [which is totally what I wanted to be so I was devastated]).

Beer pong!  The mess of hair at the bottom is mine - I won eight straight games before I had to stop due to some crazy dude on heroin thinking he needed to beat people up (thanks boys for saving me).  I played with whiskey - which is why it is a good thing I didn't also try some of Bob's grain alcohol or the riot juice!

We had live bands playing for most of the night!

Kate's home made Falcor costume for Dean - impressive, no?  Of course Hunter S. Thompson wanted to shoot him.

Sobriety played a big role in our party.

Kate, myself and Dean!

The couch (which I actually remembered to take a picture of) I slept on all week.  

 Thanks so much for everything Aj and Bob.  I really enjoyed you guys and hope we see each other again.  If you want to fly me to Salem to do the cob webs and rapebow next year - I am totally game!  Love to you both!

Driving Pictures: San Francisco to Salem

“Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear.” - Anoymous

The drive from San Francisco was VERY long.  It took me about twelve hours including stopping to eat and get gas.  Luckily, I left super early in the morning (5:30am) to avoid traffic, so I made it to Salem before nightfall.  The view for most of the trip was not too spectacular (I did not take the coastal highway because it added too much time)...but I was able to get some good pictures.  Here they are!

This turned out blurry (obviously) but I liked it - this was the bridge I was going over at sunrise that took me out of San Francisco.

As I was crossing the bridge in the above picture I glanced down at my odometer and noticed this!  Luckily I already had my camera out.  I have put A LOT of miles on "The Bubbly" (my car) during this trip.  All of them well worth it!

I just thought this cloud taking a break on top of the mountain was nifty looking.

My first snow sighting of the trip - which was fine at the time, because I did not drive through any of it or deal with the frigid temperatures ('til I got inside the Salem House, anyway)!

So there was this town called Weed in northern California - and there was a lot of signage and such.  One bumper sticker read: I (heart) Weed california.  I found it to be pretty amusing. 

This one is for you Jake!  =) 

It was rainy that day (of the few bad driving days I have had)...but it made a rainbow!

It totally did not lead to a pot of gold though...

Don't mind my car...can you see the faint double rainbow?  Pretty spectacular stuff!

That was the drive...on to Salem (even though I am writing this from Pittsburgh)!