Another beautiful day that this country provided our travel. We woke up and got ready for Nashville. Now Amy had been to Nashville before because it was where her sister either got married or had the bachelorette party or both, (I honestly can’t remember, I know there was a flood involved, but that doesn’t make me a bad friend) so she acted as our travel guide. I was surprised by how beautiful Nashville was – I thought it would be a bunch of barefoot hicks with guitars in wood shacks but it actually looks surprisingly like Austin. Nashville, the Country Music Capital, and Austin, the Live Music Capital, both have clean downtowns with modern architecture but seem to have very normal neighborhoods outside of downtown where people’s kids could play in the front yard.
We were on a mission: cowboy boots! Now you have to understand that Sam and Franco were trying to experience all that ‘Merica had to offer this summer. At camp, everyone had cowboy boots except the foreign boys (I had to borrow some to go horseback riding) because it was a camp founded on horseback riding and being an cowboy. Sam and Franco wanted a pair of real cowboy boots. Amy came to the rescue and took us to Boot ‘n More on Broadway where if you ‘buy 1 pair [you] get 2 free’! We each got a pair of boots, actually Franco got two, and Sam also got a cowboy hat that he wore all the time. The store cuts you a deal so that you aren’t missing out on their special. Still high off the leather boot fumes we decided to go a couple doors down to see Hatch Show Print, which began churning out posters in 1879 and basically is a famous graphic design and print shop. Trust me if you are an American that has been alive in the last 100 years, you’ve seen their stuff. I contemplated buying some of their posters so that I could hang them up in my apartment when I got home but I didn’t think they posters could last the trip. We didn’t actually have that much room in the car. I settled on a Hatch Show Print t-shirt and a key chain that I gave to Amy to replace the one I lost in Houston.We went next door to a charming old soda shop / sweet shop that also served lunch food. We indulged in some sandwich/soup/salad combos and discussed what are plans were for the rest of the day. The boys were dead set on going to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum, Amy was leading and I was just along for the ride.
We needed to make a quick stop at a bank. The boys still hadn’t been able to cash their pay checks from camp. We figured out that the boys could just write their checks over to Amy and then Amy could cash them. Thankfully the cute redhead bank girl make this easy while the crazy woman in Houston, days early, seemed to make us think it was impossible. Finally the financial burden was lifted and we all felt free. We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and did the museum thing. I’m not a big country music fan but I enjoyed it. I use to hate country music because it reminded me of small-town, ignorant, racist, sexist, hill-billies but now, because of my summer at camp in small-town Texas, it reminds me of the simple pleasure in life that are easily enjoyed while living in the country. I enjoyed looking at all the old pictures and memorabilia. As we were leaving Nashville everything got dark and it started to pour. This was not good. We had 11 hours to drive to DC and it was around 4pm.
I drove us out of town and into the mountains. It was beautiful. The shower let up just as the sun was setting around the mountains. The road was windy but it was kind of exciting. Once we hit Virginia we stopped to play around at the Welcome Center, one of our favorite road trip past times. Half way through the night Amy and I switched and she drove. While the boys dozed in and out of consciousness, Amy and I began to lose our minds from the driving. This peaked around 12am when we decided that we were not going to be able to make it to DC. Amy hated driving at night on these windy roads in the mountains so we pulled off the interstate, following signs for hotels that seemed to not exists. We later found out we were in Lexington, Virginia. There was a strange fog and the rural roads looked awesomely creepy. Amy mentioned that she was scared of ghosts so I came up with elaborate tales of the civil war ghosts that haunted this area that could and probably would show up and try to get us more lost. It was mostly the delirium of driving 8 hours in a row but Amy was getting freaked out. We saw a sign for Stonewall Jackson’s house but we were failing on finding some place to stay. Finally we saw signs of life and after checking with a couple of hotels we settled on one. Well there was no turning back, we just travel more than half way to New York City.
We got up early and reluctantly left New Orleans. It was such an amazing place, our favorite so far. We swung by the Super Dome on the way out to get the appropriate sites checked off the foreign boys list of things to see. Another beautiful sunny day: We took loop 610 to I10 West so that we could hit I-55 North that would take us to Memphis. We hit the Mississippi border but decided to opt out of seeing the Welcome Center. We let Francesco drive since we wouldn’t be going into any major cities for in a while. Somewhere in Jackson we got pulled over, Mississippi because Franco “took too long to change lanes with his signals on” and the police officer was “worried” Franco was falling asleep at the wheel or something. Now this cop had the thickest accent I have ever heard, I was struggling to understand him. He looked at Amy’s and Franco’s IDs for a really long time, asked all of us stupid questions like “do you have any drugs?” and “have any of you ever been arrested” and then let us go. Mississippi sucks. We stopped in Grenada to eat some food, get some gas and change drivers. The boys were amazed by the way everyone talked. We stood out a little but thankfully we wouldn’t be in this stupid state for much longer.
We were happy to be in Tennessee. We stopped at the Welcome Center and played around a little. The Welcome Center had this amazingly random structure that reminded me more of playground equipment than a memorial. We stretched our legs and got some tour brochures with coupons Graceland and info about cheap hotels but not for too long since we were basically in Memphis and excited to see Graceland. Originally when the boys and I were planning the trip I asked them what were their top things to see and places to go and both had Graceland in their top three choices. Sam is a musician and thus is a music fanatic. Honestly, it was not one of my top choices of places to go but I was curious and later, glad we saw it. As we drove in the city it started to drizzle a little. We played what Elvis Presley songs we had to get pumped up.
Graceland was very lively which we discovered was because it was Elvis Week. Apparently Elvis Week is a big deal in Memphis, it’s when the rest of the country’s Elvis lovers and aficionado pack up their trailers and head over to Graceland to get their Elvis fix. Sam and Franco are apparently big Elvis fans. They were giddy with this piece of Americana in front of them. The thing people don’t seem to mention about Graceland is that it costs a lot of money. There are different museums and tours but most of them cost like $50 a person minimally. Paying for information about Elvis’s life when Amy has internet on her phone with Wikipedia didn’t seem like it was a good use of our hard-earned money. We walked around and checked out the landmarks, the Lisa Marie plane, the mansion, etc. Interesting fact about the mansion: it’s tradition to write on the outside of the wall. There was a big crowd of people writing on the wall near the entrance of his mansion. We almost walked up to the mansion thinking it was okay but were stopped by a loud and overly aggressive security lady. We popped our heads in some gift shops and listened to some Elvis impersonators do his songs on a sad little stage in the parking lot. There are so many Elvis impersonators I began to have a difficulty recognizing real pictures of Elvis because every image of him looks fake. We headed over to the Heartbreak Hotel, partially for the kitschy touristy value but also so Amy could buy stamps. It was an Elvis fanatic’s dream, very cheesy with a heart-shaped pool with a tile crack down the middle. The gift shop was out of stamps and sent us to this trailer in the parking lot that was yet another Elvis gift shop. Amy got her stamps and the kind old woman working the counter gave us advice on where to go in Memphis.
We took I-55 into the downtown area. The gift shop woman told us to head towards Beale street and that’s what we were going to do. The drizzle had been constant while we were experiencing Graceland but as we drove into Memphis a beautiful thing happened all at once:the rain stopped, the clouds opened, that song Walking in Memphis came on the radio just as we saw famous Memphis-Arkansas I-40 bridge. I made Amy open up the moon-roof so I could get a shoot of this strange road-trip miracle but it didn’t come out the way I had hoped. We parked on 2nd and Peabody and walked around a bit. The gift shop woman told us to take the Main Street trolley because it only costs a dollar it functions as a delightful way to see a lot of the downtown area. This was great advice. The whole trip probably took a little over 30 minutes but it was fun. Downtown Memphis is very clean. You can tell at one point it was very industrial but over time had become more commercial. I wondered what it looked like before the Recession because there were a good amount of abandon old factories and buildings. We finished our ride and we saunter down Beale Street in search of some good ol’ Memphis barbecue. We were torn between two places but settled on one over the other because it seemed to be a little cheaper. In retrospect I wish we would have gone to the other place since the place we decided on specializes in BBQ pork (I don’t eat pork) and we experienced the worst service ever. We were in there for over 2 hours! They only had one guy waiting on the whole restaurant. Amy and I kept daring each other to start waiting tables but we were afraid they might actually hire us and we still had a lot of driving a head of us. The food was alright I guess, nothing to write home about, nothing like our meals in New Orleans. If we had more time we would have stayed and watched some local live music. Beale Street reminded me a lot of Austin’s 6th Street, lots of bars, restaurants, and live music.
Before we left town we had to go see the famous Sun Studio. My friend, Mike’s grandparents use to own the building and lease it to Sun Studio back in the day or so he tells me. It was a beautiful little studio. It was closed to we creeped around peeking into the windows and taking pictures. It was weird to think about all the music history that had been recorded right here at Sun Studio like Howlin’ Wolf, Little Milton, B.B. King Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. This was another landmark that excited the boys.
We had to get on the road if we were going to make it to Nashville at a decent time. The sun was setting as we were at Sun Studio. I drove us out of town on I-40 into the darkness. I wish I could tell you what the landscaped looked like but again it was way too dark. We stopped somewhere between Memphis and Nashville for gas and sustenance, by that I mean doughnuts and soda (yum). I was losing some of my travel mojo and thus not being as fun. When we finally got to Nashville I went to sleep while the others drank and played around. Because of our budget and the randomness of finding a hotel kind of late at night, we had to compromise on our accommodations and settle on one king-sized bed for all four of us to sleep in. Thankfully I got to sleep on one of the edges. We had another big day coming up and the long driving was starting to get to me.
After a night of drinking in New Orleans, I was surprised how effortless it was getting up. I say that, but I mostly speak for myself. In the last several years I have learned my limit and conditioned my body to not completely punish me for my nightly activities. I acted as the alarm clock for everyone which at first they resented me for but later were thankful for, or at least I hope. We had made plans to meet up with Amy’s friends for lunch at some place in the French Quarter. It was a beautiful day, very sunny with few clouds. We struggled to find it at first because we couldn’t find the street. We knew we were looking for some place called the Green Goddess on Bienville and Exchange Pl but we couldn’t find Exchange Pl. It turns out the at Exchange Pl is an ally of sorts which is why we had overlooked it. Boy was it hot. We didn’t mind too much about the heat, and sat outside to enjoy the city’s quaint atmosphere. We met Amanda and Laura, another one of Amy’s old friends, who was visiting Amanda from Chicago. We were extremely delighted by the food. It was the best food we could ever imagine. I ordered this amazing salad with salmon and avocado and some sort of cheese. Amy had this french toast stuffed with fig and goat cheese. Marvelous. I can’t really describe how good it was. It was just exactly what we needed. We parted way from Amanda and Laura with the promise that we’d see them later. We were off to explore New Orleans!
There’s so much to see, we weren’t sure where to start. We were suppose to meet up with a camp friend, Andrew, a Louisiana naive who had promised to take us to a off-the-beaten-path Voodoo Queen, but we never gota hold of him. We walked around the French quarter with eyes wide open. We took Chartres Str. towards Jackson Square and we dipped into a used bookstore to look at postcards. I picked up a gently loved travel book about Louisiana and Amy got some interesting used postcards.
Jackson Square was hoppin’ and full of a colorful array people, artists, performers and tourists, like us. We gawked at the art in amazement. I was definitely considering getting my tarot cards read from some lady for $30 but didn’t because 1.) that’s kind of a lot of money for something so silly 2.) I know how to read tarot cards and would probably be an ass about it if she read a card differently than I would and 3.) we had better things to do. We walked along the square on St. Peter’s Street towards the water to see the Mighty Mississippi, which is the largest river system in North America. It was all right I guess. I’m only kidding. The foreign boys were super excited by it and we were too. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t what I expected. The color of the water was a sort of brownish grey; I thought it would be bluer. We wondered if it was always this color or if this was part of the afterglow of the BP Oil Spill or if this was all [Hurricane] Katrina’s fault or even just years of muck. I was briefly reminded ofAdventures of Huckleberry Finnwith Huck and Jim on the river and amused myself at the parallels between the book and our real life adventure. Were Amy and I struggling with the life’s expectations for us while Sam and Francesco just looking for something better? Maybe I need to read the book again, I’m not sure if I’m remembering it right.
We continued wandering around the square. We knew that it was our duty as tourists to eat beignets and drink coffee at Cafe Du Monde so we ate beignets but it was way too hot for coffee. We weren’t sure where to go from there but my map showed there was a French Market with a farmers’ market and a flea market, not to far from the square so we headed there. The market seemed to be an open collection of shops, anything from bags, purses, dresses, sunglasses, jewelry, t-shirts, anything really. We wandered without real direction. We saw a Jazz Heritage Museum and decided to see what it was all about. As we went in a concert going on, some sort of jazz student showcase. It was a celebration of Satchmo, aka Louis Armstrong. We listened and absorbed the unique experience we felt like we had stumbled across. We headed back towards the hustle and bustle of the market only to stop and Amy got Sweet Tea Vodka and lemonade which we all of course shared. We stopped and watched another jazz band more , zydeco than big band, play music. It was delightful. John called and laughed when I answered the phone because “that is the most stereotypical sound I could have imagined from you in New Orleans.”
We continued to walk around the market, listening to all the live music, window shopping and tasting any free samples that were offered to us. Amy and the boys got some alligator sausage. It was actually really good despite my initial prejudgments. We were all getting a little tired so we decided to head back to the hotel to unwind, recharge and get cleaned for dinner.
Amy’s friend, Amanda, had recommended a great place for dinner, The Gumbo Shop. The food was to die for. We all shared each others food, assorted seafood, gumbo, jambalaya, Cajun pasta and red beans & rice among other Cajun delicacies. We felt spoiled by a city that we loved. My favorite Louisiana-born person, Mike, had recommended that we head over to Frenchmen Street for some local flavor. We went by Amanda’s place, who has a darling duplex, and convinced Amanda and Laura to come out with us toFrenchmen’s Street. We ended up a bar where a blues bands was playing. I bought a round of shots for everyone and the band was flirting with Amy and asked her to go around and get tips for them. It was a good time.
Day 2 The Young & Stupid? YES. Have Fun! Road Trip!:
Good grief, I can’t believe the camp gave us checks that are impossible to cash. The camp uses some small podunk middle-of-nowhere bank that check cashing places don’t trust and thus Sam and Francesco haven’t been able to cash their paychecks. We spent our morning in Houston driving around for several hours, not always in the best sides of Houston, trying to cash their checks. My bank wouldn’t let me deposit them into my account and then give them cash because I didn’t have that amount of money in my account. Basically my bank said they would cash the checks after my pay check cleared. Long story short the boys didn’t have any money until early next week and neither did I. We were now Amy’s bitches.
Thankfully our morning was splendid before all this because Amy’s dad made us breakfast, migas. YUM! It was such a thrill having real food again. We had made rough plans to meet up with one of our friends from camp, Drew, while we were in Houston. Before we saw Drew we gathered supplies for our trip which meant going to one of the worst places on earth, Walmart.It made sense to start our ‘merican road trip there but it’s usually best to avoid the whole place. Despite my personal politics I did shop at Walmart this summer while I was at camp. Because our off hours were at late hours and because HEB closes early in Kerrville, Walmart was really the only choice I had. I ended buying a digital camera since I had forgotten mine while the boys spent what felt like all day shopping for god knows what, sandals? a cell phone? Amy and I really wanted to get the hell out there since it was Walmart (see Amy’s Walmart face) and we were excited to actually leave Houston before dark.
We met up with Drew at Hermann Park where we ate “the world’s best” sliders at Little Bigs. Hermann Park is a cute area where I imagine schools come for field trips. The Houston Zoo, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Houston Garden are all there in the medical district of southwest-central Houston, inside loop 610. We walked around for a bit. Stuck our feet in the water and watched the ducks. I wanted to feed the ducks but didn’t have any bread so I gave them what I had, Wintergreen Altoids. I’m sure the ducts are fine despite Amy’s worries that they are dead now; I’m sure they just have nicer breath now because of me. Our other friend from camp, Ryan Fountain, was apparently have a bbq at his house so we went over there just to say hi. Amy and I were both getting antsy at this point because we wanted to leave town and get to New Orleans so that we could go out that night. Amy’s friend, Amanda, was having people at her house that night and we were looking forward to going. Ryan had just bought a house in the Heights of Houston, which is in the Northwest-central corner of the 610 loop. No offense to Ryan but I did not expect his house to be so nice. I figured it would be a post-college bachelor pad which would include a crappy posters and beer cans. However his house was great, organized and well thought out. Ryan said he bought it from a gay couple who were both artists with a big social life which apparently explains why they have two urinals on the outside of the house in the backyard. We hung out for a bit and reluctantly left around 5, despite Ryan enticing us with food and beer to stay the night.
We took I10 out of Houston towards New Orleans. Our energy levels waxed and waned with the landscapes and the setting sun. Once we hit the Louisiana border we got out at the Welcome Center. It really did feel like a completely different place than Texas, swampy. We stretched our legs, ran from the giant bugs, met some real ‘Merican bikers and were on our way. Once it got dark, I began to get antsy. I ended up playing a game on my phone, Diner Dash 2 which helped pass the time, until I introduced it to Sam who then played it for awhile.
We got to New Orleans at 10 or 11. We were too late for Amanda’s party so we went straight to our hotel. Through AAA guides and the minimal internet Amy can get on her phone, we found a great place near Tulane, just minutes from Bourbon Street. It looked a little rough at first but the friendly staff, clean atmosphere and roomy rooms made up for the stretchy pre judgements we all had. We quickly got in our party clothes and went out to the notorious Bourbon Street. The rest of the night is a little of a blur. What I never realized was that in New Orleans you can drink on the street, out in the open, which really does make for a fun time. We walked around drinking, piña coladas I think, just taking it all in. We went into a few places checked out the music and dancing. At some point we got these grenade things that were tall and really after that, if this were a movie, there would be a scene missing, then more dancing and I dunno, I think we made it safely back to the hotel around 5am.
The last day of Dream Kamp was a long day indeed. Everyone’s emotions were high in a bittersweet way. On one hand after 2 action-packed months we would all be going home to what we all jokingly called, the Real World, Reality or Real Life, as if camp life wasn’t real and we were all on some magical vacation. One of the camp slogans is even “Life is good, camp is better”. On the other hand, we had all grown so custom to the daily life that camp offers, grown so use to each other, that we were sad to leave our summer home. Francesco, Sam and I would be starting our cross-country road trip once we left camp, which we were all very excited about. It was really all we could think about for the last couple of days. We would walk past each other and just say “Road Trip.” and the other person would echo it with more excitement “Road Trip!”
Before breakfast I ran up the hill to move the Jeep, that I was using all summer, closer to our cabins so it would be easier to load the car and get going later. Unfortunately it was dead and wouldn’t start. I found out that when I let Francesco park it a week before that he left the radio and lights on after he turned off the car. Silly foreigner. Thankfully the camp is full of mechanics and car parts. I put Francesco in charge of fixing it while I got ready for my class. My morning class was a little more lackluster than all the previous classes. They got half way through the Wacky Riddle Adventure Challenge and then once we got to the water part of the activity they asked if they could just stay there so we did. They did spend their time next to the water trying to decipher the code and finger out the riddle.
***What has roads but no cars, forests but no trees, rivers but no water, cities but no buildings?***
After lunch I was running around like a crazy person, packing, cleaning the cottage and saying my goodbyes. Because some people had to leave earlier than others and me and my boys were still around, we got roped into the afternoon water activity. It was fun getting to play with the campers one last time. Will they even remember me? My boss informed me that we had had a miscommunication about the way I labeled all my video files during regular camp and that he needed me to relabel all of them before I left. I was stressing. I told Amy we would be on the road by 5pm, in Austin by 7pm, in Houston by 10pm and it was getting late. I finally get done with my files, get my evaluation and pay check, the car packed and it’s after 7pm.
We zoomed through the hill country of Texas talking about camp and all the people and memories that didn’t seem distant until we left the gate of camp. Was it all really over? Did it really happen? In the beginning of camp I thought it would never end but once I got more accustomed to everything the whole experience zipped by. I ended up loving camp and I’m really thankful that I took a chance on the experience. I met some amazing some people, some not, and did some awesome things like zip-line across the Guadalupe River, horseback ride, SCUBA dive, rock climb and etc.
I love the drive from Hunt to Austin on TX 27, TX 39, through Fredricksburg onto TX 16, then to 290. You get to pass all the good Texas vineyards. If I had had more time I would have loved to snap some great shots or those quaint Texas antilandmarks. After this summer I’m starting to appreciate small-town Texas a lot more.
We got into Austin some time in the 9 o’clock hour and met up with Amy. I quickly de-packed and packed a smaller bag for the trip and got on the road to Houston around 10 something. 290 East was a breeze because of the time of night. I dozed in the backseat while the boys talked Amy’s ears off about camp even though she didn’t know the people they were talking about or the quirks and traditions they were mentioning. She eagerly listened and was genuinely excited to know what we did all summer. We rolled into Amy’s parents house, in Kingwood which is northeast corner of Houston, around 1am. I feels like we spent most of the day driving but I know that today was nothing compared to what lies ahead.
Tomorrow we will be in New Orleans. It’s my first time in New Orleans. I think when I was a kid we drove through New Orleans on our way to Orlando/Disney World but I really don’t remember much of that drive other than being nauseous and listening to Andy’s Walkman listening to the Transformers soundtrack. Stan Bush’s “You’ve got the touch, You’ve got the power” echoed through my head for 1200 miles. I’ve always wanted to visit New Orleans because of the music history and the food. And on this road trip we’re using good ol’ maps. No GPS for us.
By the way the answer is a map, A map has roads but no cars, forests but no trees, rivers but no water, cities but no buildings. And on this road trip we’re using good ol’ maps. No GPS for us.
Amy writes a great travel blog, make sure you check it out here.
I have been working at a camp all summer where I have become close to several people. Yes, that’s right, I actually made friends. Two of my new friends, Sam and Francesco, needed a ride to New York City and wanted to see America, or what the counselors’ at camp call it ‘Merica, so we all decided to drive up to New York together. It actually wasn’t that simple: Francesco convinced me to go on this road trip and really I was very reluctant at first. Now I don’t have a car and did not want to have to drive back from New York by myself, but thankfully my friend, Amy, wanted to come. Once Amy was on board I felt a little more at ease.
When we were still in the planning stage, I was talking to my dad about it. My dad really likes road trips, he hates planes. I thought it would be fun to get some road trip advice and for him to get AAA to send me some maps because I don’t use GPS’s. Our conversation went something like this:
DAD “So do you have any money for this trip” SARAH “umm sorta but no” DAD “Who’s car are you taking?” SARAH “not sure. We’ll figure it out,” DAD “So basically you’re young and stupid?” SARAH “yes” DAD “Have Fun!”
THUS this trip will be called The Young & Stupid? YES. Have Fun! Road Trip!!!
I won’t be writing a blog for this trip. Not enough time and I don’t want to bring a laptop. I might bring a journal and jot some things down but no promises.
If you have any advice or have a place to let us stay, please let me know.
Fri 08/06/10 (day 1) – Destination Houston / Kingwood Leave Hunt, TX at 5:00 pm Arrive in Austin, TX at 7:00 pm Meet up with Amy Leave Austin at 8:00 pm Arrive in Houston at 10:00 pm Meet up with Drew? Ryan? Stay with Amy’s parents
Sat 08/07/10 (day 2) – Destination New Orleans Leave Houston at 10:00 am Meet up with Drew? Ryan? Arrive in New Orleans 3:00 pm Meet up with Andrew? Stay with Amy’s Friend?
Sun 08/08/10 (day 3) – New Orleans Meet up with Andrew? Voo Doo Queen? Have fun! Stay with Amy’s Friend?
Mon 08/08/10 (day 4) – Destination Memphis and Nashville Leave New Orleans at 7:00 am Arrive at Memphis at 1:00 pm Graceland Leave Memphis at 7:00 pm Arrive in Nashville 10:00 pm Hotel?
Tues 08/09/10 (day 5) – Destination Washington DC Leave Nashville at 1:00 pm Arrive in Washington DC at 11:00pm Stay with Angie? Hotel?
Wed 08/11/10 (day 6) – Destination Washington, Philadelphia Leave Washington DC at 7:00pm Arrive in Philadelphia 9:00pm Hostel? Hotel?
Thu 08/12/10 (day 7) – Destination New York City Leave Philadelphia at 12:00 pm Arrive in New York City 3:00 pm Meet up with Alan? Stay with Amy’s grandparents?
Fri 08/13/10 (day 8 ) – Destination Sumter, SC Leave New York City 10:00 am Arrive in Sumter 11:00pm Stay with Sarah’s brother
Sat 08/14/10 (day 9) – Destination Austin (Home) Leave Sumter at 12:00 pm
Sun 08/15/10 (day 10) – Austin (home) Arrive in Austin at 4:00 am
That’s me dancing while driving… because I’m excited.
I’m really excited. Hopefully this will turn into one of those trips I tell my kids about when they aren’t really listening to me.
Well I made it through my first term of camp alive but only just barely. We get a four day break between terms so that we, and I’m sure they, may celebrate Independence Day in peace. It’s strange being home, in my apartment, on my computer but it’s also nice. I’m not even sure where to begin, I’m overloaded with thoughts and experiences that I’m battling myself on whether I should even mention them here.
Camp is good. Being the videographer is bitter sweet. I get a lot of freedom and flexibility but I don’t have a cabin like the other counselors so I’m not making a lot of connections with the kids. The kids are awesome, well, I should say that awesome kids are awesome and the others and just ok. I have noticed that these rich, privileged kids have a hard time picking up after themselves, but I guess they’ve never had to. That’s not fair of me to say, most kids don’t like throwing their trash away or cleaning up the table at meal time. Some of the boys instantly picked me as one of their favorites and I was very thankful for this. One of these boys that I just mentioned, traded with 6 people so that he could get a movie ticket Silly Band so that he could give me.
Small side rant: Silly Bandz are probably the greatest thing ever when it comes to kids. If you don’t know, Silly Bandz are rubber bands that are colorful and shaped like interesting things, like animals or space ships etc. Kids love Silly Bandz! They love trading and collecting them. If a kid was ever super homesick or crying because he fell down or whatever, all we had to do was get him talking about his Silly Bandz and BAM no more tears! It was actually really amazing. The best thing about Silly Bandz is that they are so cheap. You can get like 20 for a dollar. but I digress…
My days at camp are spent shooting footage, uploading said footage and then editing footage (see picture) into some sort of highlight video for the kids and parents to see themselves and their kids having fun at camp. Every day I try to spend a little bit of time doing something fun like swimming or rock climbing. I have officially shot my first gun, technically it was a rifle, AND I’ve shot my first bow and arrow. I haven’t been on a horse yet but I do have work to do.
It’s not all fun and games. My boss put a lot of pressure on me without being completely direct. He wants me to be creative and produce more videos (which I have already produced twice as many videos as any other past videographers) but he either doesn’t like my ideas or he’s vague about what he wants. Basically he has an idea in mind and it’s like he wants me to guess what that is. Also picking the music for the videos can be tricky. The requirements for the song are pretty intuitive for these kinds of things: they have to be all age appropriate (no drugs, alcohol, sex or profanity). They have to be kind of high energy / fun. They should be semi related to camp, summer, having fun etc. I’m not allowed to use any hip hop or rap because parents don’t like that (I wanted to use some Jurassic Five and I got shut down). I want the songs to be songs that the kids probably haven’t heard before but that they will hear after camp, but my boss wants something catchy or familiar to the kids. Oh and apparently they have to be “boy” songs so no lady singers (I’m sure Heartless Bastards or the Sounds could pass but I never tried). A lot of my free time is spent on finding the perfect song for the videos. It’s all pretty ridiculous.
One of my favorite parts about camp was that I got to be the night time DJ on our radio station. The camp had a small radio tower that broadcast to our a camp and to the small town the camp resides in. It was mostly used for announcements and bugles but since every cabin was required to have a radio on, we played music throughout the day. From 9-10pm it was shower time. The staff used this time to go to all the cabins and make sure the kids were well taken care of which left our radio station unattended. Because I was in the office at night, usually uploading video, my boss told me I could use the night time time slott. I was told to play fun stuff from 9-9:30 but then start winding it down after that. I probably put too much thought into the songs I chose and the order I decided to play them in but it was fun. After my first night one of the campers said I sounded awkward so I adopted the name DJ Awkward Sarah. Everyone agreed it was the best name for me. My friend, Tobbe, would tease me saying that I sounded like a DJ on NPR or that I sounded like one of the ladies from Delicious Dish on SNL.
I like NPR, especially This American Life and Delicious Dish is hilarious (see above video) so I wasn’t insulted. But he kept teasing me so one night I put on my best chessy radio voice I could muster and said something like “ALL RIGHT campers, tonight I have a special request from Tobbe who has been begging me to play this songs because it is his favorite song in the world. So when you see him tomorrow make sure you let him know that you heard me play his favorite song. Here we go, It’s Raining Men for Adam Tobbe.” and then of course I played It’s Raining Men. I tried to put more energy behind my radio voice while still staying true to my college radio, NPR voice. I normally would take requests and shout outs from the boys which usually consisted of Ke$sha or Lady Gaga or Katy Perry or Zac Brown Band. Usually at 20 minutes past the hour I would play a special “girl” song and give a shout out to all the girls at camp, all 13 of us or whatever. The girls seemed to like this. After a long day of work, I genuinely looked forward to this hour, where I got to DJ and write letters to my friends at home.
I’m not going to lie though, I do stick out at camp. Hardly anyone (I’m mostly I’m talking the counselors here) is from Austin and being from Austin apparently makes me a liberal city girl, which apparently is a bad thing. I’ve been called various things, from both counselors and campers, from hippie, hipster, liberal, foreigner, terrorist, lesbo, dyke, vegan, to vegetarian. Sometimes I get called a combination of all “hey you hippie terrorist vegan lesbo liberal! [laughing and high fiving]” Hippie comes from me being from Austin and my general consideration for nature and living things. Terrorist comes from the fact that I will not say the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning. This is also why some of the kids thought I was foreign.Vegetarian/vegan comes from the fact that I complain about the poor quality in the vegetable selection on top of the fact that I sometimes encourage the kids I sit with to try the vegetables on the table. Lesbo is because I lectured some of the boys about how they shouldn’t use the word “gay” as an insult for each other or in a derogatory way at all. It’s all very silly. It doesn’t really bother me at all since I don’t take any of their jabs as insults. I think the camp needs someone like me to bring new ideas in and to question the traditions.
Despite the playful name calling, I think I’m pretty well liked. Nobody hates me and slowly, I think, they are all accepting me as their own. I did experience a severe culture shock that first week. I was constantly asking myself, “why am I here?” Those first couple days I was shocked by some of the things I heard people (the counselors) say. For example, there was one black counselor, who closely resembles Usher in that he’s got a good body and is very attractive and he knows it. Some of the other counselors weren’t a fan of [let's just call him] Usher which I thought was because he was cocky. However I heard a couple of them say one day “Man, someone should just lynch that nigger!” (Note that I am quoting someone and would not ever use this kind of language or spread this kind of hate) I was shocked and disgusted and wanted to leave then and there. Who were these people that were about to be the leaders of these campers?! I didn’t think these people were still out in the world saying and thinking things like this but I guess I’ve just been ignorant to what goes on in small town America.
Over time I realized that they were prejudice against everyone that wasn’t exactly like them: blacks, latinos, asians, jews, women, and even the gingers (thank you South Park). I learned to bite my tongue and keep my “liberal agenda” to myself. There was no way I was going to change the way these counselors felt about anything. I did however talk to the campers about if I saw them mistreating one another and open up a dialogue. To them it all came down to “It’s just fun.” It’s just fun to make fun of the jewish kid or the one vegetarian kid or the five ginger kids. okay… I, of course, am a day walker, not a ginger, especially since I have a spanish last name but to everyone at camp, I’m a ginger, not that there is anything wrong with that. The campers would joke that I didn’t have a soul or would not want to touch something I’ve touched. I’m really not use to this kind of behavior. Again though, I should point out that it was really the other counselors who would egg this on.
Again, I had fun at camp. Please don’t get the wrong idea about the whole experience. I’m glad people tease me and try to push my buttons. In their own way, it means they like me. I would be more worried if they ignored me. And I’ve made real friends. I have a camp best friend, a best girlfriend, a crush, a mistake, a friend I constantly try to one-up, and so many other characters. Some of the foreign counselors didn’t have anywhere to go for the fourth of July holiday so I invited them to stay with me. Right now I have two Englishmen, and one South African staying with me and tomorrow the New Zealander will join our house of awkward sleeping arrangements.It’s been super fun having them here. We went walking around today, site seeing. Hopefully they’ve been having a good time. The weather hasn’t been ideal. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my nation’s independence than by hanging out with some of my new international friends. It might sound funny coming from me but the fourth of July is my favorite holiday. It’s a secular holiday that celebrates our freedoms to have fun and is centered around being outside with your friends and family. PLUS there are fireworks which I love.
I’m actually looking forward to going back to camp for the second term. I think it will be much better because now I know what to expect and I won’t be such an outsiders. I’m happy to be home but I’m anxious to be getting back. I’m not ready for my life to start back up in Austin. One of the reason I went to camp was to get away from all of it and to clear my head and my head is not cleared yet.
