vicksburg, ms to waco, tx.

so day two got off to a slower start than was planned, but it was worth the delay since we were both tired as shit from day one. the mighty miss didn't smell like anise and turds, which was a nice touch. after skipping the 'free continental breakfast', which consisted of hard boiled eggs and 'gourmet' flavored coffee, we headed west again.


i quickly learned that the trip across northern louisiana is down a cripplingly boring, flat, shitty mess of a road that eventually lead to shreveport, on the texas border. according to wikipedia....
'Shreveport is the third-largest city and the principal city of the third largest metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Louisiana, as well as being the 99th-largest city in the United States.
It is the seat of Caddo Parish[1] and extends slightly into neighboring Bossier Parish. Bossier City is separated from Shreveport by the Red River. The population was 200,145 at the 2000 census, and the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Area population exceeds 375,000.'
i, however, in a million years, use that description to open an article about the place. according to me....
'shreveport is the foremost shittiest and third largest metropolitan area in louisiana. if you were to somehow eliminate all of the good or even decent aspects of new orleans, while retaining all of the filth, crime, and retarded polulous, you'd be in the ballpark.'
not ironically, the place also smelled like babyshit.


















after eating at whataburger for the first time in a dozen years, we were mercifully whisked across the border and into what was my life's first experience with texas.


anyhow... it's pretty easy to figure out when one state has more money that it's neighbor, and you can tell in a heartbeat that texas scoops up oil and louisiana was all blown to hell by a hurricane. instantly, I-20 grew smoother and cleaner and a concrete safety divider sprouted from the median. aside from that, however, the terrain is relatively unchanged, though i think i started seeing mesquite trees here and there. i never saw dallas, since we shot south on I-35, headed towards austin, but it loomed on the horizon and looked metropolitan enough, i suppose. being able to 'loom on the horizon' means it's a legit city, right? plus, they have a football team.
anyhow, shortly after that it got foggy as hell and the daylight ran out on us, so i have no idea if the landscape has changed. something leads me to believe it hasn't.

changing gears. an adventure in misadventure.

so i am changing the subject here for a little while, or should i say sort of. i guess what i really mean is that i am still going to post very sporadically and about dumb shit, but this time out there, you might also be able to find some semblance of a 'theme'. today was the first day of johnny p and my adventure out across the deserts of the untied states and into the promised land of california. unfortunately, this edition will be rather slight, since i wasn't really able to discern anything of real interest (this being painfully familiar and boring stomping groungds for me). at any rate, at the end of day one, i find myself at an econolodge in vicksburg, mississippi, tired and intrigued by what ever the hell it is that makes old man river smell like black licorice and baby shit. i kid you not, that's a precise description.
anyhow...todays highlights included getting detoured through 'lovely' bessemer alabama, which, without contention, holds the new title of 'the shittiest place i have ever fucking seen, i swear'. this was thanks to what appeared to be one van careening across a twenty foot median and annihilating another van head on. the carnage took up both lanes of our two lane highway. and second, john got all high roller and came up $42.50 on the quarter slots at a steamboat casino here in vicksburg. guess who bought the beer?