The 3rd World Rocker

Alright, since the Odyssey ended, I figured I’m put up the last of the photos.
there wasn’t much on Day 13, when we were heading out, because I was driving the whole way =)

So here are the last photos of the California Odyssey.

Day 13 & 14

Enjoy =)

We made it, wohoo.
I had the privilege to driving us into Berkeley last night, and when John woke up I told him “isn’t it cool that you drove us out of Maryland, and I drove us into Cali?”..it was quite poetic =)

The first stop we had was at the Nomad Cafe (yes thats the actual name), the plan was to hop online, find us a Hostel near the area, and have a few caffeinated drinks. But that plan flew out the window. I took my gear and walked over the Cafe, John had to make a few phone calls so he said “I’ll catch up with you in a bit”.. I go in the cafe, order a smoothie and cookie. Mean while on the side there is a man with microphone, shouting out questions, and people are sitting in groups jotting down answers. “Its Trivia Night” says the barista lady. I thought “this is nice”, I’m glad to see that they have activities here..I wip out my laptop, plug gadgets into the socket and the barista calls me up to the counter “I’m so sorry, but we turn off the wireless on Trivia night”. Strike One Berkeley.

I think to my self, no worries, I’ll just hang here until John comes over and we’ll enjoy a few drinks. Then I get a call from John asking “where I am”..dude! at the Nomad Cafe, right where you left me. So he asks me about the internet and I give him the 411, he then says, then I’ll meet you at the car..what happened to him wanting to get caffinated..he completely forgot about it, instead he’s about a mile down the road getting pizza. Strike Two Berkeley.

I finish my drink, hop in the car and drive up to where John is, we park the car and I ask him about his friend Kirk (originally, that’s where we were supposed to be settling in) he tells me that Kirk isn’t home, he’s with he’s having dinner with at his parent’s, and that his other friend doesn’t have phone so John has no means of contacting him.
Strike freakin Three Berkeley.

I must say, it wasn’t the most glamorous of introductions to my “future” town.
But then Jen comes to the rescue (you RaWk Jen). John calls up his lovely girlfriend (who is still in Maryland) and she finds us a hostel that’s literally 3 minutes away from where we were standing.
We drive up to the place The Piedmont House, we find that there are 2 beds in the outside den that are available for us to use.
Sweet.
We pay for 2 nights, go out to find a place to park the car, end up almost a mile away from the Hostel, we carry what we need and walk back up to the Hostel, and we literally CRASH on to the bed.

We have not even SEEN a bed since we left John’s family in Arkansas, we almost forgot how good this inventions were..oh my God, we probably woke the whole damn hostel with our snoring from it being so comfortable =)

So the plan for the day is to go chill with Kirk, walk around in the UCB area, I will defiantly pay the Lab a visit and see what kind of available living is in the area.

At this point my California Odyssey ends, but my Berkeley Updates begin.
I hope you have enjoyed my journey so far, I shall keep using this Blog as I mentioned for my Berkeley Updates, so you can keep track of how soon (or late) I am able to settle in. Its like a documentary..the Adventurous Arab Settles In The West Coast =)

Take care my friends.
Salaam

So I am now writing to you from the parking lot of a place called The River Inn, located at Big Sur California. OH my god it has been a long few days, can you believe that I had no success finding any kind of internet access since we’ve entered Cali?..I mean I had a full signal in Whites Creek TN for God’s sake.
The past few days we have been exploring Cali.
Yesterday was spent all day with my good friend Kristine and her boyfriend Chris, they took us out to lunch and wine tasting…yea, its funny watching people drink and talk about the economy, hehehe!

Anyhow, it has been an adventure just getting IN to cali:
Here is what happened starting from Day 9…
Basically we drove into Sedona at night, slept in the car and then in the morning we just went down to the creek and spent the whole day there, just enjoying the view and the cool dry breeze. Then we drove into Phoenix AZ to visit John’s uncle Jim. He was a very kind man, I totally loved his home. It was very basic, white and blue on the inside, sand colored on the outside, perfect in my opinion.
He took us out for Chinese food, then we all went back to his place and talked about movies, books and technology. Then John and I decided that will make the drive into California that night, we wanted to go to San Diego, and John was like “I’ll drive us all the way there”…we weren’t even out of Phoenix before John started to yawn and asked me to take the wheel and wake him in a couple of hours. So I drove us all the way into Cali, w00t. I stopped at the “Welcome to California” sign, but because I only have a camera phone, and it was dark as hell (even with the car beams on high) the picture came out barely visible, but oh well, it’ll have to do.

A few miles in on Interstate 8 West, there was a check point in which they asked us if “we were citizens”, we showed them our Driver’s License and they said “go on”…yea, I passed through the immigration police =). But just in case I made sure that my passport was with me in the car, but luckily I didn’t need it. Then about 30 minutes later, while we were on Route 111 north, there was another check point. This time they were suspicious for some reason, they had us park the car and sit at a bench, then they brought a dog and had him sniff the car in and out. One of the officers asked me if I smoked Marijuana, and I of course said no because I don’t, Nomad told them that had been smoking cigarettes (which is true). They asked us to empty our pockets…they found nothing. So they thanked us for our co-operation and let us go.
That was fun, all I could think of was “My whole dream was to come to Cali, and once I did, I get arrested”…it was quite the experience.

We drove up a few miles and camped at the Mecca Beach State Park, in the morning (Friday 10/10/08) we got up, I shaved, brushed my teeth, did my prayers by the beach, which the sound of was very soothing.
Then we drove into San Diego, had sushi, checked out the local open mics which sucked ass, then we hit an RV Park and slept in the car again..in the morning we freshened up and met my friend Krissy in Santa Monica, slept that night in the mountains of Santa Barbra, froze our nuts off, got up drove down to Gorda, CA, had some clam chowder and now we are back in the parking in Big Sur where this post has started =)

take that Tarentino! =)

Alright, Photos:

Day 9

Day 10: Entering Cali w00t

Day 11

Day 12

Alright! I hope you enjoy the photos, hopefully the next post will be from Berkeley =)
Take care boys and girls.
Salaam.

Good morning everyone =)
We just literally woke up a few minutes ago, we drove up to the little tourist town called Sedona. Luckily there is WiFi here, I’m sooo happy for that =).
So Day 7 & Day 8, not much happened. We were in Santa Fe during the day (Day 7), then at night we hit a open mic in Albuquerque. There we met Danny & Brock, 2 locals who shared a small studio apartment a few blocks away from the open mic spot “Bickyard Pizza”. They actually had us crash at their place, I took the chair and Nomad took the floor. Then in the morning we drove back to Santa Fe, hung out at the Cathedral Park for a bit, then played our gig at the Teahouse. Now the gig was financially disappointing, but I like to think of it as a success for other reasons. First off, the owner just saw on the street and asked us to play, second of the 5 people crowd that we had actually stayed for the whole show, and this Gypsey native came up to me and said that they would love me in Britain. Too bad its not on our direct road trip to Cali =).

Nomad then decided to make the whole 6 hour drive up to Sedona. We parked at an abandoned lot and slept in the car, work up, and now I’m here.
He’s walking around looking for a Juice place or something like that.

Pictures, I will be adding pictures to Day 7 so make sure to check that out, Here are pictures of Day 8 (which aren’t much). I won’t post any of the Sedona pictures just yet, because I don’t have much, I just woke up remember =).

So the plan is to get to Phonex AZ by 7pm or so, we get to hand with Nomad’s uncle for the night, and then in the morning Insha Allah, we drive up to San Diego. I’m getting close to, this is so exciting =)

If you have been actually reading all of this, I really really appreciate it.
I miss you guys so much, I can’t wait to settle down and have you all come and visit me.

Take it care my peeps.
Salaam =)

I’m now sitting at the Travel Bug cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Thank god for WiFi =).
We have been driving for quite a while, we got up Monday morning and decided not to stop in Texas, so we spent the entire day driving. We were able to cross both Oklahoma & Texas, ending up in the Santa Rosa New Mexico camp site by 1am or so. It was creepy, very creepy. Something just isn’t right when there is NO ONE for miles, and miles away, in a pitch black desert. The stars were beautiful, but the atmosphere was that of cheesy horror flix. Nomad decided to camp out, I on the other hand valued my life and slept in the car. He told me later that he heard both Coyotes at night & “some one” walking in at dusk. I heard nothing.
We hoped on the I-40 west towards Santa Fe, and here we are, only to find out that there is no open mic here, its tomorrow. Obviously John didn’t research this before we left Arkansas, he truly is a Nomad.
I hoped on the net and found us an open mic in Albuquerque, its in our general direction so we’ll start heading over there in a bit.

I just wanted to let you all know, we are still alive and doing well. The adventure is quite that, an adventure. I got lost in the bushy desert of the New Mexico camp we were in this morning, but that’s another story =)

So pictures, as promised.

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

I hope you are all doing well, I’ll catch you all later =)

Salaam.

So the original idea was to drive up to Austin TX for a couple of days, and then head over to Santa Fe New Mexico. That way we’ll get to Cali by Friday, but with a little change of heart (and endurance to get to Cali) we’ve decided to skip Austin. So our next 10 hour drive will be straight to Santa Fe New Mexico. I’m presonally very excited, I hear its very beautiful, and deserty in Santa Fe =).

I know Austin is a cool town and all, but honestly my main goal is to get to California, so the more places we “skipp” on the way, the more time we will have to spend in Cali, which is fiiiine with me.

So there you have it, our next destination is Santa Fe New Mexico Insha Allah (god willing)
Update you later =)
Salaam.

Pics, just as I promised.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Enjoy =)
Salaam.

Hello everybody =)
For those who are reading this, we are now in Arkansas. We made it here about 3:45am. We are staying with John’s family, they have been very curtiouse and hospitable.

Today we took a walk in the city, they showed me the landmarks of Hot Springs, and we got to SEE some of the Hot Springs, it was very nice.
We had all just come back from a dinner at a local mexican grill. John, James (John’s brother), & I are preparing for a night out.

I’m actually using Mrs. Thayer’s computer, so I can upload any of the pictures of my previouse days (I’m sorry), but I do have pictures catagorized by “Day”, and I promise I’ll put them up soon.
The plan at the momment is that we will head down to Austin TX tomorrow night, stay there for 2 days, then its off to Cali, w00t.

Thanks to all the lovely people who have been texting, and checking up on me. I’m really bummed that I can’t write more often, but you know how it is with the whole “internet” and all..maybe I’ll just end up scanning the journal I’m writting once I get to Cali and post that =)

Take care everyone, and I do promise to pos those pictures up once I get a chance.
Also make sure to check my Twitter page for “on the road updates”.
Have a great night everyone.
Salaam.

So we have successfully and safely made it to Whites Creek Tennessee. We’ve been hanging with the owner of Richard’s Coffee shop, very kind man. He made us some burgers and offered us drinks, he’s letting us hang inside the shop even though it doesn’t open until 5:30 (its now 12:26).

The day started of pretty good, we got up at 6:30 (in Frankfort KY), had breakfast at the “Waffle House”, gassed up in Elizabethtown, then hit 65 south all the way until we got here. Not much happened, other than Nomad slept the whole way down =)

Our show here isn’t until tomorrow, it seems that they have a show tonight, so I’m quite sure if there will be an open mic at this particular coffee shop. We will be checking the internet for other open mics to promote this our show tomorrow Insha Allah (God Willing).
I am kind of nervous about it, because, well, we’re in the south, and my songs aren’t exactly Banjo friendly. I know that a very sterotypical statement, but so far all the music I’ve heard on the radio is very un-Ash.

This will be very interesting.
I miss you all very much, its been great so far, I feel like a natural traveler =). Especially since I’m getting good with driving the Stick Shift Saturn.

The broadcast, might be 70% successfully, since the sound board is at the far end from the stage we’ll be singing..so the sound may be good, but all you’ll see is an Ant of an Arab =). Wish me luck with that.

I’ll write back with any updates.
I hope you are all doing well.
Mmwah.

Salaam.

I’m being summoned by my friends to come out and eat.
We have been driving since 11am, (I drove a stick shift for 5 hours), its now 9:30pm and we are in Frankfort Kentucy, we will be spending the night here and hitting the road to Nashville tomorrow Insha Allah (god willing).

Take care people, and make sure that you check my Twitter page for more frequent updates (twitter.com/ashAfied).

Salaam.