beginning days

allison and i spent our first official night of the road trip in LA (love! pure luck) but the next morning it all truly began, as we picked up zack and brigham from the greyhound in sketchy downtown. after some fiascoes and finagling with the bike rack to leave LA, a short 7-hour drive put us into Tucson in the evening where it was still almost 100 degrees. we arrived to hang out at the end of a documentary screening at dry river, the local anarchist collective space and run into the seattle/tacoma/reno kids in marrow. budge and the unfortunately out-of-town kyle, hooked us up to stay with the kids in havoc house, who not only put us up, but fed us.
in 105 degree heat the next morning, we went out for coffee with budge and joleen, visited BICAs and their awesome staff for quite some time and then went onward to the local public pool--a nice respite and well worth the $1 entry. we picked up food from the downtown food co-op and took over havoc house kitchen to make ourselves dinner. after well needed showers, we sat outside and watched the oncoming storm. i have never sat through something like that--the lightning surrounded us and after 20 minutes--and coinciding with our departure to met budge and friends--it began to rain. luckily we didn't experience a full monsoon, but it was still quite a novelty.
we met at 'the grill' downtown for photo booth pictures and then headed to the roof of an abandoned hotel to drink beers and hang out. good times with awesome people all around. our time in tucson was short, but extremely enjoyable: we thank you for your hospitality







Tucson endorsements: lots of ice water with lime, BICAS, bug repellent, colder temperature pools, dumpstered bread with too much parma, fans, friendly kittens, and free chili.

whew. finally in Austin after: 12 hours of driving on the 10, two hours delayed via daylight savings time, lame detours, bullying huge trucks that drive over 85mph, and tiny burritos in El Paso. luckily, James' friend Serra welcomed us just the same at 1am. hopefully Austin isn't as hot tomorrow!