#70 - Drive to State I've Never Visited

So we actually took that trip to Mississippi last month to surprise our friend Karl as a late birthday celebration. He had no idea. It was awesome.


Karl was scared awake but quickly recovered and started passing the beers around. A good time was had by all.

The next morning Karl and Terry took us on a tour of the University of Southern Mississippi campus. It's gorgeous and everything was in bloom.

Mike & Amy, Brianna & Mark, Karl, Greg & me

Karl's a chemistry professor there so he showed us around the labs too. Oh, the joys of geekdom...
Later that night we enjoyed dinner and darts a local pub. It was great fun, even when Brianna was almost accosted by the sloppy, drunken lesbian.


The next day, Karl impressed us with his mad barbq'ing skillz.


They were, in fact, delicious. For a Brit from Essex, he's done an amazing job embracing this whole deep, southern lifestyle. After dinner, it was philosophizing time around the fire pit.


The perplexed look on my face here because I had just been arguing (heatedly) with Karl about something with which I have zero personal experience. I do that when I've had a few too many to drink and someone antagonizes me. Karl was having great fun. He lives to rile people up.

The next morning we took our tylenols, ate a huge breakfast and said our sad goodbyes. :(

I miss them. Even if Karl's boarish, pig-headed declarations piss me off sometimes. :)


Since we drove to Mississippi in the middle of the night, we didn't get to take in any scenery. But on the ride back home, we caught what we missed the first time. The most surprising bit was to see the effects of Hurricane Katrina three years later. One second, we'd look out the window to views of fields and fields of trees.


A few seconds later, we'd pass an expanse that had been whipped and wripped to shreds.


Its pretty amazing to imagine the kind of force that could mow down a forest...

Thanks, Karl & Terry, for being amazing hosts! You handled the invasion beautifully. :)

Mississippi Bound

Oh, my poor, little neglected blog. Its been almost a month since I've paid any attention to you whatsoever. Its not because I love you any less than my other life-in-general blog, its just that I've been so stinking busy that my 101 goals are the last thing on my mind right now. But I do think of you every now and then with a wistful sigh. I miss you.

And with that, I promise to give you some much needed TLC in about a week after I've accomplished goal #70 - Drive to a state I've never visited.

Our friends Karl & Terri moved to a tiny town outside of Hattisburg, Mississippi a few years ago after Karl got a professorship there. He just celebrated his 30th birthday this past month, and although we couldn't make his awesome canoing trip through the Grand Canyon, we did make plans with Terri to surprise him for a belated celebration. On Thursday, we'll make the 10-hour drive through Louisiana and into Mississippi with Mark and Brianna. We're also meeting friends from Florida who'll be traveling from the other direction.

I love road trips if only for the excuse to load up a car with trash mags and even trashier food (or at least what might marginally pass for food). Twizzlers, gummy bears, nacho cheese Dorritos - all the naughty things that are not normally allowed to reside in our house for fear of instant inhalation and subsequent 20 pound weight gain. Bring it on! My usual celebrity gossip fix has also been cut off recently due to my extreme productivity. Luckily, I'll be sharing car space with someone who has an equal, if not greater, addiction - we're talking about a girl who actually subscribes to Us Weekly, people - so she can fill me in on everything I've been missing over the last few months.

If all goes well, we'll all arrive at their place around midnight on Thursday evening. And then let the drunken debauchery begin...

I should really start prepping my liver now.

#69 Camp in Lost Maple State Park

I've wanted to visit this park for the last five years! We finally made it this past week-end. We had beautiful weather, which is a good thing because we actually ended up hiking for about 7.5 miles with our huge packs stuffed to the gills with camping gear. Note to self: invest in more light-weight "serious" equipment.

We set up camp at the primitive site at almost the farthest site away from the trail head. We had beer brauts and s'mores for dinner before settling in to sleep. The night was chilly, which made snuggling up in our sleeping bags all the more cozy and tempting.

The next morning, we set out to hike the rest of the West trail. Some of the maple leaves were starting to change colors, but not many. I'd love to come back later in November, but its a 2.5 hour drive from Austin, which makes it one hell of a day trip. We had a great time with our friends Mark & Brianna. I hope this won't be the last of our camping trips. The hill country is gorgeous and there are many more parks to explore.