Friday, June 26, 2009

The Hickey/Bodell East Coast Pilgrimage

We've spent the past week traveling to see our extended family one last time before we leave for Thailand. 

Destinations: Charlottesville, VA to Long Island, New York to Pittsburgh, PA

We broke the New York trip in half by staying in Charlottesville, VA, a quaint little money town in the middle of VA. So after 6 or so hours of traveling through TN and VA we stopped off on Main St in Virginia and had some drinks at a little jazz patio called Maya. I was tempted to have the Peanut Butter Martini that I had been told about on the streets by a random couple, but decided against it. 

We Finished the second half of the trip to NY in about 8 hours. 


We were exhausted by the time we got there, but woke every 
morning to a smorgasboard of breakfast treats from her Nanny. We spent the second day on Jones Beach, gathering shells, playing with sand creatures. We eventually played 9 holes at a local pitch and putt. It was Maris's first time. We got eaten by mosquitos. We were done with that pretty quick, although it was fun. 

We spent the night in the city eating sushi at Blue Ribbon Sushi. I give it a 6/10. Then we introduced her family to Thai food the next night at a place called Jai Ya on Long Island. The service was terrible, the food was mediocre- They won't be trying Thai again.

So we are now in pittsburgh, waiting to go have lunch. This is our last big trip before August 4th when we take off. I will be telling work about my plans come Monday morning.

I found a home for Otis. I will miss him dearly, but the owner is a good guy and I am sure he will love having a yard to run in.

Michael Jackson died yesterday. As strange as he was, he earned the moniker, The King Of Pop.

He put out several epic albums and was a major part of my musical taste growing up. He was a weird dude, but nobody knows exactly what he had going on in his life. The guys childhood was pretty messed up. But let's not forget he was the complete shit up until all the molestation hoop-la. 

RIP Michael Jackson, Beat It

_Brock
Posted by BrockTalkinThai at 9:59 PM
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The Beginning

The Beginning

I am a 25 year old, southern Gent. I've been bothered by the fact that I've not traveled the world or even left the country, sans a trip to Cancun when I was in High School, but that was so muddled with tequila and strip clubs (sorry mom), that It doesn't REALLY count- that I have decided to take a adventure across the globe with the love of my life.

All I needed was a motivator, I needed someone to push me to travel and tell me, "Now's the time to do this, and we should totally do it". She came, she said those magic words and now we've got our bags packed, watching the calendar.
 
I had intentions on moving to New York City with my girlfriend. We are both really big into music and both have a spot in our hearts for the city. The opportunity escaped us after having our hopes deflated by the freaky rent prices there. We kind of ditched the New York idea immediately following a trip there and the mention of Thailand. 

We had always tossed around the idea of traveling together. I knew I wanted to travel with her. The first place she mentioned was Thailand, and after 20 minutes on Craigslist, checking out places and prices, we were sold (prob not the best way to chose where you want to spend your life, but that's just how it happened, and this is my story). Thailand it was.

So here we are 6 months later, a ticket for Bangkok dated August 4th in our hands. When people ask us how long we will be in Thailand, we say "Indefinitely". We are ready for a life change, something that might coax us into never coming back.

I have been dreaming of the sand and the crystal beaches since we mentioned the move, I have also had nightmares of being locked up and having to deal with a girlfriend who has been kidnapped by some crazy python handler, but those are just dreams.

The truth is, I have never been so excited and nervous at the same time for anything in my life. Right, now as I sit on my couch in South Knoxville looking out the window at the homemade bird feeders we made, on a hot Sunday afternoon, it blows my mind to think that in a little under two months, I might be laying in the sand with the tide riding up my mini bathing suit, with some concoction of a random Thai's design to sip in one hand, watching long-tailed boats float over the horizon, holding the love of my life in the other.

I expect to be shocked, excited, impressed, disappointed, lost, scared, found, happy, comfortable, uncomfortable, drunk, frightened, enlightened, ready to come home, ready to stay forever- all at different times on this journey.  

But one thing that will never change will be when I am an old man, maybe back in South Knoxville, sitting on my porch in a rocking chair with my old wife, widdling some crazy little thing old men on porches widdle, I will be able to look over to my wife and ask, "Remember that time we went into that local bar in Thailand and we saw that Thai Prostitute perform that "Ping-Pong show?" I am glad we shared that moment together."  

And she will say, "Brock that's disgusting" and then smile a little bit.


_Brock