old post. Halloween eve in Nashville.

After running amok in downtown Nashville, we spent this day lounging around the house, laughing, telling stories, reminiscing of the prior evenings events, and planning the debauchery that was to ensue.

Morgan made us some delicious turkey tacos for dinner and after the table was cleared we began to get ready. Lauren was busy with her Peg Bundy costume, Morgan was a Cupcake doll, Alex was Hipster wolf (he'll tell you otherwise, but thats whats up) Michael was a jumberjack/Youkon Cornelius/The Travelosity Gnome, and Matt was the chicken from devo, a cock goblin if you will.

Matts costume was the most simple to throw together, so he hung around and nursed a cocktail while the others prepared themselves. A lot of crafting and makeup was done before everything came together, but when it did, it was good.

Pause for portraits and hen it was off to the first party, which was just around the block. There we had good company and a spread that would put any restaurant to shame. I'm talking home smoked and BBQ'd ribs, sausage, chicken wings, gormet cupcakes, peanut butter rice krispies, and countless other tasty treats. We done got ourselves FED!

On to the next one... After a quick ride down to the local spot called 5 points, we found ourselves getting turned away from one of the bars due to Matt's and Alex's expired I.D.'s, which put an immediate damper on the party scene, but not to worry because we were able to find a bar that would let us in, expired and fake i.d.'s alike. Rock on Nashville.

The bars were pretty standard, but a good time none the less. On our way home, Alex decided to cut up the middle no-handed... going really fast, he somehow lost his balance and went head over heels into a mailbox. the laughter was immediate. Dont worry folks, Alex is fine, not five minutes latter we were back home and raving in the living room.

Morgan whipped us up some tasty nachos, we decompressed, and the sleep was soon to follow.

The next day was Halloween proper and silly michael forgot his camera..... :(
We definataly had a good time though, we hit up the bars again, but only briefly because our good frien Kory, from Clarksville, came down! After we met up with him, Kory, Michael, and Matt went to the far west side of Nashville and found ourselves in a bamboo forrest. At a party. In a Mansion. Bamboo forrest.

That party was one of the crazyiest things i have ever witnessed. And thats all i have to say about that.

21, 22, 23, 24 coming atcha!

Wow, sorry about the delay in updating, we have just been doing so much, we seemed to have lost track of our blog. After our big day in Nashville, we hung around the house a bit more. Cali made us feel really comfy, and with a big leather couch, climate control, and cable, we were hard pressed to get moving. Michael made his way to REI to check out some new panniers because his were blowing out and would have made the trip really frustrating to continue with. Long story short, he found some, got them ordered, and then did some grocery shopping.

Gymnasties in the back yard.


So much seems to happen everyday, that all of the times get blended together, so i apologize for the lack of detail... i just cant remember anything else from that day...

Michael's panniers arrived the next day so we all piled in Calis car again and set out to go get them. Cali had a long day of school so we took her car back in to Nashville and jammed out to tunes, got ice cream, and cruised around and oogled girls. On our way back home we remembered the tantalizing smells that we had noticed coming from a small BBQ joint on the way back to the burbs, so we stopped there and had some awesome BBQ. Spicy chicken, pork plate, and rib tips for Matt. all of which had been hickory smoked for a million hours.... amazing.

Driving....weird.


On day 23 we said our good by's to Cali and Justin, and leisurely made our way back to Nashville VIA bikes. We made it to our new host's place, but not before getting lost-ish on the way, going to the airport, getting angry with each other, and some minor bike issues. FUCK COMMUTING ON BIKES IN NASHVILE!!!!! Seriously, this city needs to get its act together, motorists, pay the fuck attention. Tennessee law gives bikes all of the rights that cars have while on the road, so black lady near the airport, fuck off and dont call us assholes, learn how to drive in the 21st century.

Wow, ok, sorry. Here we are now at Morgan's and L-l-l-l-aurens place, and its awesome. Both are amazing artists and kind, warm people. Morgan made us some amazing pasta while Lauren entertained us. We got fed, drank wine, and laughed at silly pets. then the sleep came.

Rasta Pasta


Turtle, the dog.



Good morning day 24. We made an early start of it, leaving with our hosts as they went off to their Jay-Oh-Bees. We rode our bikes around Nashville seeing, the Parthenon, dragon park, and heavy traffic. silly Michael forgot his camera so there are no photos from this day of adventure, but know that we saw some cool stuff.

back to the house to get ready for the night out!

We all had a great time sitting around the table playing card games and trying on wigs and fake mustaches. after more wine, laughter, and antics, we took to the streets by force, rolling five deep on bikes. I'm sure that we were quite the sight... We made it down to Roberts Western World and honky tonk'd like it was our 'ma fukin day job. it was truly ridiculous to texas swing looking like a lumberjack, animae girl, skelitor, the mad hatter, and captain mullet.

Trashy or classy.... you decide.




Roberts wacky western world!


Antics ensue...


Da club..


after the honky tonk, we went across the street to the Cadillac ranch where all the college kids who arent into country go. Alex grinded up on some ladies, Matt shook his groovethang like only he knows how, and Michael ran around telling people that he was from some scene website and snapped a million and a half pictures that we cant really show you, due to the questionable legality of how they were obtained...

Disco? Disco... DISCO!!!!



so around 2 we were wrecked enoough to leave and made our way back to the place. sleep quickly followed with thoughts of sleeping in and fried meats dancing in our heads...

Good person. One of our host's...

#20!

Mike took Callahan to class/work today so we could borrow her car for the afternoon. Sweet. Before coming back to the house, he did some quick recon at the REI Store for new bike bags. He found some, and ordered them. They will arrive tomorrow.

Mike came home, we dicked around for a bit, then DROVE to Nashville. The highways are much more comfortable in vehicles designed for them. Wondered around downtown for a few hours in sparse showers.




We saw buildings, country bars, mountains in the distance, and back alley strip joints. It was cool.



We headed back to Cali and Justin's. We jammed out in their car. The clouds were nice.




While hanging with Justin, we had the opportunity to hold some guns. Since it had been a while, we did it with intensity.

Commuter Hell on Day 19

We left the house lightly scheduled today, heading to Nashville proper on our bikes for a day. There aren't any good biking roads from the suburbs to downtown, so we were forced onto the highway. Cars are fast, close, and piss us off.

We got separated for a bit on the highway, and lost each other after a turn. It took a few minutes for everyone to re-group, but thankfully we were finally downtown. Asked a few questions then headed to a gear/bike shop on the west side of town. Mike needed new panniers (his are busting at the seems), so we were price hunting today. Nothing here, so head to another store. Other store is closed, time to get some eats.


We grabbed cheap Thai food and a beer at International Market, near Vanderbilt Campus. By this time it was getting late in the afternoon, so we needed to leave quick before darkness and traffic consumed us. Highways, highways, interstate. Of course we lost our way. After a few wrong turns and a heartfelt but heated conversation, we got our shit together and made it back to Antioch.

We ate, had drinks, and went to bed, fucking exhausted.

Day 18 - Recouperation

Sunday was a real slow day, especially after our late, late night. We ate breakfast, drank coffee, and watched tv. The movie "Hook" had been a topic of recent conversation, so we took the opportunity to catch it on cable. Dustin Hoffman is a great Captain Hook, and watching Pan and the Lost Boys got us pumped for adventure. Rufio, Rufio, RU-FI-OOOOOH!!!

After Hook, we lounged some more, took naps, and waited for our hosts. Calahan made dinner (we had tasty chicken and asparagus) and soon after, everyone went to bed. Sunday is a day for rest.

Saturday - 17 days?

After our rocking good time at The Coup, we stumbled out of bed around 5 am so we could catch a ride to Nashville. We hung out with Kory for a little while, and watched some Jackie Chan as we waited. Mikey, our ride, showed up a little before 7, and we threw our gear (and Alex) into the bed of the truck and took off. It was a cool morning as we sailed down the interstate.

Mikey let us out in a parking lot near his school, and we made our way to the Waffle House for breakfast. Thanks Mikey. The remaining war paint gave us away as avid partiers, and we chatted with our waitress over coffee. Mike's cousin Calahan was expecting us, so we took off down the highway.


Our morning ride was a little hectic. There isn't much room for bikes and the cars certainly aren't used to bikers on their highway. We got to Calahan's place alive and made ourselves at home before the evenings festivities. Laundry was a priority.

That evening we headed to the countryside for this years "Beer-lympics". Lots of drinking, games, food, and a bonfire. Mike and Alex won their first match of Beer Pong, but lost to Matt and Clint in round two. Suffering from their defeat, the boys stuffed themselves with tasty burgers and forgot their troubles. Alex took a nap while Mike and Matt kept partying.





The night wore on, and Mike documented plenty of toothy grins. Matt did a keg stand, and Alex woke up for round two. The party eventually dwindled around 4, with peeps sleeping/passing out around the house and in the yard. The three adventurers made it home safe, full of meat and laughter.





Show me your teeth, America.

16 days

We ended up crashing in Clarksville for a second night because we were able to get a ride to Na$hville this morning, and there was a pretty cool show going on that we wanted to check out. Our day was rather lazy, we all felt pretty fatigued and relished the idea of a day of rest. Matt went off and did some stuff with Kory ( one of our hosts) and Alex and I did our own thing. We checked out the local bike shops and talked about riding. Really cool guys up at the bicycle center and also down at Riverside bikes. Two really cool shops, its a shame that Clarksville sucks for biking. We were also able to play a lot of Sega, which was rad, not just he fact that we haven't played video games in forever, but also that they were classic games from our adolescence.

after some chilling, we made our way down to The Coup. Some music was going on downstairs, some drankin was going on upstairs, and good times were going on everywhere. we danced, drank, ate, laughed, and had a really good time. We met some super neat folk in Clarksville and I hope we keep in touch!

Face Painting at The Coup!






Details, Details at The Coup


Dancing at The Coup


There isnt much to be said for the rest of the night, but know that we had an awesome time! All the homies in C-town.... you rock!

day 15.

After a long and grueling day of riding, we were not to pumped to get up at 6 am and do it again, but after some liquid courage (coffee) we were ready to go. We peaced out of Dover like it was our job and crushed another 35 miles in about 2 hours and 40 minutes, which is a really good touring pace, especially when you are in the foot hills of the smokeys and are hauling up to 90 pounds of gear.







Enter Clarksville, home of some stuff.

Clarksville really sucks for biking in, but were were able to make it up the hills and highways to our Couch Surfer Host's by around noon time, where we were greeted by some of the coolest dudes we have met thus far... and chocolate chip pancakes. Cant forget those. so we enjoyed the company and front porched it for a hot minute.





After some serious porchin, which included a demonstration on how to properly restrain a special needs student, we did some serious inside chilling, whipped up some pizza dough, and made our way down to the venue that these guys own, nothing was going on, so we just chilled. Rothgar, the mighty wizard gave us a private hammer-dulcimer performance and we shredded the mini ramp for a while. Good times.










After those follies were through, we made our way back to the house, ate the pizzas, and soon after (but not too soon) made our way off to dream land.

Many thanks go out to Kory, Andy, Jared, Rothgar, Daniel, and everyone at The Coup. without these guys we would be out in 34 degree weather and would not have had nearly as good of time. The awesomeness of the people here convinced us to stay another night before heading to Na$hville early Saturday morning. There is a show tonight at The Coup, so if you are around Clarksville, check it out, we'll be there!