Matt, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, DC, Atlantic City, Meeting the Family, Appalachian Mountains, Hatteras Island.

Life has been a little crazy. I haven’t had any time at all to update everyone.

Last week Friday matt and I went to a great burger place called Dumont bar and grill. The burger was really one of the best I have ever had. Next it was nap time. I was late when we both got around to getting up, so it was lulu time. Beer shot pizza $5 again. As we were drinking away a guy comes up next to me and asks me if I know where Wisconsin is. We said ya. He asked if we heard of a town called Milwaukee. I’m thinking he saw my id or something like that. We said ya again. He says that’s where he and his friend are from. I couldn’t believe it. It turns out I know a lot of the same people as him. He and his friend woke up this morning and just decided to go to New York. They were staying with a friend there and didn’t even tell him they were coming until they were on the plane. It was a great drunken story to hear about. After that matt and I picked up some booze, for the party we were going to and to drink on the train. Then we headed to Matt's friend, Lindsey, friend’s birthday. So matt didn’t really know anyone there except Lindsey. This party just so happened to be at Steve from the show blue’s clues apartment. The place was really nice. He was kind of a dick and a strange guy but nice place and really nice dog. Matt wanted to steal the dog and name it blue. I managed to creep everyone out and I don’t think anyone there really liked me. But I still had fun with matt and Lindsey. On the way home I pulled the signature drunken Eric move and ran away. I just think I wanted to see more of the city. I wondered around for awhile and eventually made my way home.

                Needless to say I felt like shit and slept until about 3 pm. At the bar the night before matt was joking around about coming on part of the trip with me. He had a few days off until he started back at work. So in the morning I asked if he was serious and he still was. So we packed up and headed down to Atlantic City. We drove around for a bit then found a place where we could park and sleep for the night. We walked into the Taj Mahal and it was crazy. It was not what I was expecting, there was a concert going on, there was also show girls. The bar was packed and I couldn’t even get a drink. Matt and I hit a sensory over load. We were just driving for a few hours then all this is going on. He looked at me and just said “were way to sober for all this.” So we decided to just walk to the liquor store 2 blocks away. They couldn’t sell liquor but we could get beer. So we both got a 40. We found a very nice alley, empty 40’s were scattered about so we knew we were in the right place, and slammed away. After that we had a great Idea that 1 just isn’t enough. So 40 number 2 went down the hatch. Then back to the casino. We were told if you’re betting then you get free drinks. So we tried black jack, lost first hand. Tried roulette, I lost first spin. Then we were going to check out a different bar. On the way out we ran into some girls having a bachelorette scavenger hunt, after a few distractions we headed out. We went back to the car and had a few more beers. We walked through another casino and like no one was there. So back to Taj. On the way in I had to climb the elephants outside. Now we just walked around for awhile. Ended up buying some tequila from some guys who were going into a club. I had a really shitty idea to just draw on our hands to try to get in. it didn’t work. Then we started back to the car. We ran into a prostitute who wouldn’t admit it. Then we also meet the worst pimp ever. He tried selling us a girl, not for the night, forever. I really should add we had no intention of even looking for a hooker, and we still ended up with 2 hooker stories. This is also how I will judge anyone who goes to Atlantic City. If you don’t have at least 2 hooker stories then you didn’t have a good night. The pimp ended up buying me a beer at a bar too. Then it was off to bed.

                We woke up by some kid knocking on the window, we were supposed to pay for parking the night before but no one was around. We just paid then. Next we walked the boardwalk. This is along the coast and connects all the casinos, with a lot of small shops along the way. So we walked through a few casinos and on the beach. Then it was time to hit the road again. The first stop he had was Philadelphia. I have always heard bad thing about this city, but it really seemed quite nice. There is a huge Chinatown area. We were looking for a Chinese buffet so we drove through most a lot of it. We stuffed faces and then checked out the rocky stairs. This is in front of a very nice museum, and has a very cool/strange statue at the bottom. The sun was just going down and we got a great view of the city. Next stop was more food. We had to get a cheese stack while were here. The most well known is Geno’s. there is another one right across the street called pat’s we figured try one now and one on the way back to Matt’s. This was really a sandwich done right. It was simple, great bread, juicy meat, and good sauce. That’s all you need. Then off to dc. We ended up driving around the city a bit and matt wanted to hit as many states as he could so he just went across the bridge to VA. We stopped in Alexandria to watch the pro bowl, and the winter X games. Then it was off to bed.

                Monday morning we headed downtown to DC. The first place we went was the Washington monument. We found great parking and walked on over. There were a lot of Asians running towards the monument. It was closed so we couldn’t get right next to it or go in but it was cool to see. I thought it was strange that it was made of 2 different types of stone. Then we walked over to the WWII memorial, this seems like a peaceful area. There was no water in the middle but it was nice. After that we walked along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln monument. The pool was having the concrete floor redone so there was no water, along of heave equipment, and workers. Not a very peaceful view, but something that needs to be done. The Lincoln monument is a great looking building. They really did a good job here. They kept is simple and classic. On the stairs here there was a high school class on Chinese kids. They were giving strange speeches and all yelling “CHINA!! CHINA!! CHINA!!” I looked at the national park guy working and we both looked at each other like what the hell is going on. So we left then and walked through the Vietnam memorial past a lot of government buildings. Next we walked over to the white house. We talked to a secret service guy for a long time. He was really cool and was trying to be a sniper for the president. He told us to go look at the occupy DC people camped out in the park. The police told them they were getting kicked out today but it was all a joke and they were getting the boot in a few days. So we went over there and everyone was riled up. There were news people everywhere. It really looks like a hobo camp. It smelled horrible. Next we went back to the car and drove to bens chili. We got some food and looked around at all the pictures of famous people that ate there. The president and his family ate here. Next we just drove around the capitol building for awhile. I got in touch with Mandie and we were going to go over to her house around 8. We didn’t have anything to do until then so we went to a nice local bar called the 18 amendment. This had the nicest bar tender I have ever met. We talked about the area with another local bar owner from the area. Then we went over to Mandie's house. It was great to see her, there baby is 5 months and just a little ball of smiles. We hung out and talked for awhile. They have 2 dogs and 2 cats, all very friendly animals. Logan made some dinner and we soon went off to bed. I was so glad to have a nice shower. 2 guys in a car start to smell very quickly. They also had a guess bedroom and the bed felt amazing.

                In the morning we talked to Mandie about things to do and see in the area. She suggested a few things then we were off. The first stop was at a cemetery. Here were the graves of the people involved in the Lincoln assassination, and Hoovers grave. Next we got some Chinese food at the place where they planed the assassination. It’s now a Chinese restaurant. We walked past ford’s theater and went to the spy museum. This was an interesting place to see the how the business of information progressed. After that we then saw Obama drive into the white house. It was cool to see all the cars involved. There were about 20 vehicles that were involved in it. Next we walked around the air and space museum. We had to hurry through this a little bit, but everything was cool to look at. Then we hopped in the car and hit the road. We drove back up to Philli just to try the sandwich from Pat’s. I must say I’m a Geno’s guy. After that stop we were off back to Atlantic City. We had to start the night right and drink 2 40’s in the alley. Then we tried our luck at the slots. We were really just trying to get free drinks. I ended up winning about $150.00 and we still didn’t get a free drink. So we played roulette for awhile and finally got our free drinks. At one point I was up about $350. Of course I should have walked away, but didn’t. So I lost all that and just broke even. We gambled for awhile and ended up going to sleep around 5:30 in the morning.

                We were up surprisingly early and started north. We drove to Manasquan NJ, this is where my friend mikes friend Jim lives. We hit up another Chinese buffet, this one was really, really good. Matt had some work to do and I took a much needed nap. Then we tried to meet up with Jim but he was on call for the firehouse tonight and he just gave us the name of a good bar to go to, Shore House. We check it out and it was a jersey shore experience. Jim said I should on the weekend for the real deal but I couldn’t justify staying around the area for more drinking. We stuck around for awhile and checked out another bar before calling it a night.

                Thursday matt had to head home. So I drove him up to Newark NJ, and dropped him off at the train station. It was a great surprise addition to my trip to be able to spend time with him. Then it was off to see the southern side of the Yanasak family. I drove down to Richmond, VA. I made it there around 6:30 and met Sarah Howard. She is my grandpas, sisters, diseased sons, daughter. That makes her my second cousin. She has a son my age tom and a younger daughter Katie. We talked for awhile and she made me a great southern meal. Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and green bean. It was great to have a meal like this. I’ve been eating out a lot and a lot of crappy food. It was great to meet her but we didn’t get a chance to talk much, and I hope to get a chance to. Tom has a spare bedroom at his apartment and offered for me to stay with him. He went back to him place and I met his lovely wife. I got a chance to shower and shave and do laundry. All of these things were necessary at that point. We kicked around the idea of going down to Hatteras Island, they have a house down there and it’s the first national park ever. We finally decided to just do it. He had to work Friday and we were going to leave after that. Then it was off to bed.

                Right when I got up I headed to the Appalachian Mountains. It was a ways away but so worth it. I did a great hike up to humpback rocks. Then I had to get gas, and I got a chance to clean out and reorganize the car. I spend a few hours just driving through the mountains stopping at the overlooks. Around 3:30 I started the drive back. I took a different way and it was much more scenic. It took a little longer but it was nice. I made it back to toms place around 6 and we packed up everything we needed for the trip in his Durango, and hit the road. We stopped for beer and fishing licenses and finally made it down there around 12. It was a nice drive, tom and I have a lot in common. We stopped at a local bar down there and met 2 older guys from the area. They told us about a younger bar down the road and we made our way over there. We didn’t have much time but it was nice to see there are younger people around here. After the bar closed we drove down to the beach. Here you can drive right on the beach. We set up for fishing and right away tom caught a shark. Within 20 minutes I got one too. Around 5:30 tom went off to bed and I changed spots. The stars were so bright and I haven’t seen them in awhile. I stayed up drinking and fishing away until the sun came up. It was a beautiful sunrise and I got some really good pictures. I ended up catching 2 more sharks that night.

                I fell asleep/passed out in the chair I was fishing in, and woke up to a ranger seeing if I was ok. I packed up and went back to the car. Tom just turned the car on when a ranger pulled in behind him and cut him off. The ranger that woke me up reported that tom was passed out in the car. So tom had to go through a sobriety test at about 9:30 in the morning. 0.0 So we were all good, just a strange awakening. Next we picked up a few things at the store and headed over to a different beach for more fishing. We got all set up and caught a bunch of blow toad fish. If you touch them they puff up. They don’t have spikes or anything it’s just really funny to see. We caught about 8 or so of those. They do have some poison to them and are tricky to cut up for eating so we let them all go.

                That brings me to now. Sorry for the long delay in the posting and I don’t have as much time as I would like to go over this. I will probably revise this and repost it in a day or so. Life has been very busy and this trip is truly way better than I expected. Thanks for following and I will be able to post pics tomorrow.