Road Trip Update #1

We made it to New York. We made it to New York without getting lost, without crashing, with only a few honks- I even honked at someone. It felt weird, not Oregonian like of me yet slightly empowering. We made it to my cousin's and were instantly fed and given many glasses of wine while discussing music (they both work in the industry), the social welfare system (or rather lack thereof) and by the end of the night my cousin-in-law and I were discussing poetry and writing screenplays. Nichole and I went into the city yesterday and walked up 42nd to Times Square and Central Park, as well as over to the Museum of Modern Art which is currently showing the same Dali exhibit I saw in LA in the fall. Nichole had not seen it yet so while she explored that I wandered through the contemporary media art section. The whole place was incredible and I scribbled poems on recites that I had in my bag.
Tomorrow we go into the fourth week of the trip and surprisingly have only camped/slept in the van for a total of four days. Needless to say it has been a cushioned trip with amazing people to stay with throughout the country and it is looking like it will continue in this fashion. My notes are scattered through three different books in disjointed fragments and half finished poems. To sum up, because I really do not know where to begin, the trip has consisted of the most amazing landscape changes, quality time spent with my dad's side of the family (whom I have not seen since they came out for his funeral in 2004) which has lead to some beautiful nights and other emotions that will take some time to process, a few days in Chicago with a dear friend and a continued spree of alcohol consumption, and now I am showing my four year old cousin the map and explaining to her the trip. Soon we will head out to take her and her younger brother to the zoo which is a place I am against but I hear there is a carousel and it means more family time so Nichole and I will hold our tongues.
Some time I will upload photos and write more. Poetry and all the projects and ideas that are running through my head might have to wait. Everything is coming in fast paced segments these days feeling much like a dream but at the same time very much alive.