Austin to Baltimore, via Albany

This post is about a month overdue. But better late than never!

In the middle of September, I made my third cross-country drive this year.

My friend Rachel (my BFF in Albany) flew to Austin to make the long drive with me. She had about another month in Albany, so I had to take her back there. Originally we planned to take this random southern route (so I could hit more state capitals), but decided that adding 10 extra hours of driving on really didn't sound appealing. So the night before, we rerouted ourselves on a more direct route.

We left Austin on a Friday morning (Sept 18). I did a bad job at taking pictures on the trip. We made it to Memphis that night. We explored Beale Street (So much live music out in the streets! So fun!) and ate dinner at a Memphis bbq place called the Pig 'n' Whistle. (Memphis/Southern bbq is different than Texas bbq. It's pulled pork, as opposed to brisket and such. I've mentioned this before.)

Saturday was loooong. We decided that we wanted to make it to church in Albany Sunday morning, so we went as far as we could. We even ended up skipping dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Erie, PA because we didn't want to lose time. That tells you something.

But we did make a stop in Frankfurt, KY so I could add capital building #24 to my list.

We arrived in Albany Sunday morning, just in time for church. (Well, a few minutes late, actually, but I was booking it as fast as I could on I-90 across New York while avoiding getting pulled over.) We weren't supposed to arrive until Monday, so we surprised people. (Except the Porters; I was staying with them, so I had talked to her the night before, and they knew we were coming then.) Some people's looks of surprise made it especially worth it. :)

I stayed in Albany until Wednesday and had such fun! Monday was spent relaxing, having lunch with a friend from church, having dinner with Nathan, and then playing ultimate with the Albany gang. So fun! Except it got dark a lot faster than I was ready to be finished playing. And the light on Bill's frisbee seemed to be burned out, so we couldn't keep playing too long after it got dark.

Tuesday was probably the most adventurous day of the trip. It warrants an entire blog entry of its own; but I won't, mostly because I feel confident most of you don't want too many of the details. Anyway, so my friend Rachel works on an organic farm. Tuesday they were processing chickens, and she invited me to come along.

After some deliberation I decided that I wanted to do it for a couple reasons: (1) as a meat eater, I probably shouldn't feel queasy at the thought of slaughtering chickens; (2) I would feel more justified in eating meat if I've actually participated in the process (not that I've ever felt unjustified in it before), and it would make me feel slightly more "socially responsible;" (3) we know it's all about the story, and this would be something I would like to HAVE done, but in order for that to happen, I actually had to DO it. And when was I going to get the chance again?

So I did it. Like I said, I'll spare the details, but the experience didn't make me sick or want to become a vegetarian. In fact, I felt the entire thing was rather educational. And I did feel more enriched and socially responsible afterwords. And they even gave me two chickens as a thanks for helping. (Though not one of the ones we processed that day...rather, two that they had in the freezer from a previous time. I have eaten one of them, and I honestly thought it did taste better than a store-bought chicken. The flavor was much richer.)

Me decked out and ready to go!

Okay, sorry if this grosses you out, but I seriously could not resist putting this picture on here. (Don't worry, they're already dead.)

Here's Rachel and I on the farm later that afternoon, after the chickens were finished, everything cleaned up and we all had lunch.

From the farm, I went home and showered, then went to SUNY to pick up Nathan. We went to see this traveling display advertising Disney's new A Christmas Carol movie. The line to get in to see it was like 2 hours, but we managed it. But it was interesting. They had lots of things from the movie (like costumes they based the animations on) and different rooms explaining different aspects of making the film.

Then we went back to his place to eat Texas waffles! Back in June after he drove back to Austin with me, I bought him a Texas-shaped waffle maker as a thank you present. So fun! Texas waffles really are the best.

What a great time. Next day I headed down to Baltimore, and well....you know the rest from there.