A slew of updates

Well folks it seems that this blog is in high demand.  So I guess I should update.  I will try to keep updating as I travel.  But just to catch up here are the last couple of cities I've been to.

Coming back from West Chester to Milwaukee.

I wouldn't never write about a train ride, but I am infuriated with Amtrak and it's horrible service.  A train ride from Philly to Pittsburgh should have taken 6 hours, the trip took 11.  The next train from Pittsburgh to Chicago should have taken 10 hours, took 18.  4 Hours were spent with no power and not moving.  It really was a terrible experience.  The made me late for my next train to Milwaukee, which I arrived 10 minutes late for, and they would not hold the bus.  Myself along with many others had places they needed to be and complained about the service.  The customer service representative said she would give me a credit for another trip on Amtrak which I replied to I don't want to take Amtrak ever again.

Minneapolis.

- It was really good to catch up with some of the Playwright's Center Staff that I was with last summer.  It felt so weird going back there and remembering different land marks, and restaurants.  Being there the 5 days maybe me long for being in Minneapolis again.  I stayed with a married couple about 4 miles outside of the downtown.  There were some very cold nights and my air mattress I have been sleeping on sprung a leak, so sleeping was always an adventure.  The days were filled with going to museums and exploring some of the Minnesota Parks.  I attended a show at the Guthrie called Old Wicked Songs.  It was very interesting, and I'd prefer to see anything there except for the premier of Little House on the Prairie the Musical.  It has been sold out for months.  The two shows that were most memorable was Distracted at Mixed Blood Theatre and Ionesco's The Chairs at Pangea World Theater.  Distracted was a wonderful play concerning a mom whose son was just diagnosed with ADHD (ADD) and whether she should drug her son and make him numb the rest of his life or endure the hardships of yelling, screaming, and arguing.  The Chairs at Pangea World Theater sparked my interest because the company is a foreign theater just like I'm trying to do with RPG.  All in all Minneapolis was a great time, with a sweet amount of strip clubs.

Denver.

Driving to Denver was a long adventure, but seeing the prairies and Rocky Mountains were simply incredible.  Denver is heavily populated with Mexican Americans and Native Americans, this was completely different to any other city I've been to thus far.  I stayed with a woman in the mexicanist of mexican places, with head shaving, three legged dogs in all.  The city is pretty much like any other city, only with the ROCKY MOUNTAINS in plain view.  Truly incredible.  Saw some interesting museums and saw a disgusting exhibit by Donald Judd, look him up, I abhor him, and you can find his work all over.  

Traveling to Seattle.

Well I thought Delaware was the worst state, but now Idaho/Wyoming beats it by a longshot.  From Denver to Seattle is a 19 hour drive through the Rockies and prairies of Wyoming.  Now in Minneapolis was cool, mid 50's each day, Denver was warmer, high 60's each day, and Seattle was going to be in the mid to upper 60's, but once I hit Wyoming and the temperature said 24 degrees, I knew I'd been in trouble.  So I'm about 8 hours into driving and what do I see, snow, not just a little, but a lot of snow, the highway is close, but luckily I could get on an adjacent highway.  Now I'm about 4 more hours away and just crossing the Idaho border and what should happen, intense snow begins to fall and I have to exit the highway and stay the night at a cheap motel.  So there goes my not seeing snow until march.  

Now I'm in Seattle and I will update this excursion in the next couple of days once I head off to Portland (PDX).  Hope all is well.

Durktown, USA (The greatest city in the greatest country in the universe.)