Update

I'm a little overdue for a blog update. This last week has flown by as I've passed through the heart of New England visiting visiting friends in Boston, New Haven, CT; New York, and DC.

After a week of desolation going through Canada and Maine, I finally arrived to Boston to visit my cousin Sophia at Boston College where she was only 3 weeks into her freshman year. I got to her dorm around 11:30 pm soaking wet with a scruffy semi-beard and a fully loaded bike. I was getting weird looks from freshman kids who probably thought I was some sort of vagrant. Sophia snuck me into her room (BC is a catholic school with semi-strict rules regarding boy sleepovers) and I relived freshman year all over again. Late night dorm lounge study sessions. Gossip and dorm floor drama. I'm happy to report though that I didn't see any excessive drinking....although I was there on a Monday. All of my meals were covered by Sophia's generous meal plan. I toured the campus and went to an Art History class with Sophia where I had the best intentions to follow the lecture and to be a good role model for my younger cousin, but after about 10 minutes I had fallen asleep in class. I mean the subject was Mesopatamian art, not cool art history like neo-classicism or impressionism. I don't know how Sophia stayed awake. One thing I noted is that about 60% of kids these days bring their Mac computers to class to take notes. Gone are the days of binders and notebooks.

After spending a day with Sophia, I noticed that her schedule was a lot busier than mine with upcoming exams, homework, crew practices, etc. So the next day, I headed south towards New Haven, CT. After two days going through pretty quiet areas of massachusetts and connecticut (where I passed many a boarding school), I arrived to New Haven and visited my bud Sparker and his wife Ellen. Sparker's is in his 2nd year at Yale MBA. Sparker's week was replete with happy hours, Bruce Springstein concerts, Energy Club competitions in Austin.....and the occasional study session. Hahaha. No in all seriousness, Sparker is a really smart and dedicated dude. After all, he is the Senior Planner among our friends.

After a quick visit in New Haven, I went over to New York, NY where I visited my good friend Peter and his lovely girlfriend Laura. I would say that out of all my friends Peter and Laura are definetly the most stylish and artsy couple I know. They both work in advertising, Peter's also an up and coming photographer. (Check out his blog at peterkhoury.aminus3.com). They're both great friends and were super hospitable to me. Also, in NYC, my buddy Sean flew up from Houston to join me on the ride from NYC to DC. It was Sean's first visit to the big apple, so along with another friend of ours, Weston, who's a musician in NYC, we did an expedited 4 hour walking tour of the city. We kept it PG that night and went to bed semi-early to prepare for our departure the next day.

It took Sean and I three days to get to DC. Some anecdotes from our ride:
- On day 1, Sean mentioned that I was lagging behind and not going fast enough. Well, he needed to understand the weight I was carrying, so we decided that I'd take his bike and backback, and he'd take my fully loaded bike (with about 60 lbs of gear). Sean said "go ahead and ride as fast as you want, i'll keep up". Sean's a fit guy, but after 1.5 hrs we had to stop mid-route as Sean's leg cramps were beyond repair. From that day on, Sean didn't want to ride my bike anymore.
-On day 2, we were in Philly and decided to catch a train to take us to the outskirts of Philly. Well, mid route our train stops, says we have to go back to the Philly station, and that all trains on that line would be cancelled that day. It turned out a woman was hit by train in front of us 5 miles down. The news reported that she was on foot and talking on her cellphone and did not notice the approaching train. Odd.
-On day 3, we definetly rode through the rough part of Baltimore. No incidents but we definetly got some looks. It was like they never saw 2 dudes with tight shorts before.

We arrived to DC and stayed with Sean's aunt Sylvia and uncle Mike, who were again some of the most hospitable people I've met. She fed us, gave me medicine, drove me around, and gave me a nice blessing for the rest of my trip.

The last day and a half, I spent riding from DC (Mount Vernon, actually) to Richmond, VA. Friday was the beginning of the Columbus Day holiday weekend and there was a lot of traffic on Highway 1. There was no shoulder lane at all and I definetly had some honks and obscenties thrown my way. It sucked.