Oklahoma City and Denver, CO

 

The Last Notch in the Bible Belt

We hopped off our Greyhound bus in Oklahoma City with hardly time to reminisce on our trip through Texas because Lauren Zuniga was there with her daughter, Kavi to pick us up!

We were starving and fed up with Greyhound, so Lauren took us to dinner at McNellie’s, a popular Irish pub in town. The food was good, but the conversation was better. It was nice getting to know Lauren off the slam stage! Later that evening, she took us to Partners, and its sister bar, P Too, two back-to-back lesbian bars in Oklahoma City. We were kind of astonished because nearly everywhere else we visited had no lesbian bars, or the bars had gone out of business. Not only were Partners and P Too thriving, they were smack dab in the middle of the Bible belt!

In the morning, Lauren took us to see the Oklahoma City Memorial, in honor of those who were killed in the OKC bombing in 1995.

Traveling across the US, we’re learning that every city is completely different, but in a lot of ways are exactly the same. New Orleanians are still reeling from Katrina, New Yorkers from 9/11, and the citizens of Oklahoma City from the ’95 bombing.

After this, we spent a lot of time lounging at the house with Lauren’s pets and awesome housemates, Aulbry and Nigel, another rad queer couple! We spent a lot of this time daydreaming about future adventures and destinations.

Marine: These are tips that Ashley and I used to get the ball rolling for our US trip, please use and adapt them for your own trip. If you have tips to share please contact us or leave a comment!

Before:

1. Plan Long in Advance: Daydream and write places you want to go to. Plan the dream trip before you even think you’ll start the adventure. It’ll give you time to surf the web and find the perfect money-saving techniques for you. Maybe you’ll even make a living off it one day. The idea for this trip was planned before Ashley and I were dating and definitely before we had any savings.

2. Estimate Cost Reasonably: To start planning a backpacking tour, you must be reasonable about your expenditure so that you don’t remain stranded somewhere without money for a flight home. You’ll spend a lot more money traveling Europe than South America or the states. If you have no preference, find a region where food, transport and lodging is the cheapest.

On the road:

3. Lower your biggest expenses: Your biggest expenses on the road will be lodging, transportation and food. If you like food, like we do, you will probably not want to lower this expenditure by much. However, you can still eat well and spend less by eating out at lunch and cooking your own dinner. Lower your cost of lodging by staying with friends Hello straddlers!! Take the cheaper method of travel to lower your cost of transportation. When you have a limited amount of time, use some simple steps to find the cheapest flight. If you’re taking the bus, use budget lines. Who can beat megabuses $1 dollar fares.

4. Avoid unnecessary expenses: I told Ashley to cut down on Starbucks and get the $1 coffee at 7/11 instead or better yet, brew it. Bring reusable water bottles because buying water can add up. Have your own drinks before hitting the night scene or limit your drinks at the bar/club.

Before leaving Oklahoma, we stopped in the arts district to explore and share some poetry. We got a private tour of a gallery that used to be a bank, found a unique gift shop and had pho for dinner.

After saying goodbye, it was time to hop on a plane headed to Denver, CO. We were greeted byJovan Mays, a champion slam poet from Slam Nuba. We hopped in his truck and he drove us to Word 4 Word Slam. The slam was unique, but really strange. The hosts didn’t know to have a bout draw, and instead of judges, each audience member got to vote for their favorite poet.

To kick off the weekend, we went to South High School’s Slam Off, which is put together by teacher and slam champion, Jen Rinaldi. The kids perform in their own open mic and slam, and Jen brings in featured guests like Ashley and Amy Everheart.

We hurried out of the youth slam and managed to catch More Than Metaphors, a social justice themed open mic benefitting Syrian refugees at the Damascus Grill. Amal Kassir was the featured poet of the night, and shared alongside other national champions like Dominique Ashaeed and Ken Arkind.

The next day, fall was in full bloom in Denver. We walked around and explored the neighborhood a bit before meeting up with more straddlers!

The International Autostraddle Meet-Up was at Vine Street pub and grill, where we socialized, played Cards Against Humanity and sampled a few of Denver’s craft beers, which were absolutely delicious!!

The group then took us to Charlie’s, the fabulous local gay bar, where our quick two-step tutorial by a straddler was not enough to match the dancing talents of the locals. When the night ended,Chealsea, a local Denver musician and straddler, gave us a ride back.

Sunday morning was greeted with coffee, scrambled eggs and potatoes with the Mays family. It was great to be treated as family when we’ve been away from ours for so long. That night, we went to the Mercury Café, a completely organic and locally sourced restaurant, which ended our week with some great poetry, free food and new friends.

Up Next: more Denver, CO and Seattle, WA

Austin, TX

Minneapolis and New Orleans

Chicago and Minneapolis

9 Hour Bus Rides and Government Shutdowns

After brunch and flag football with the Chicagostraddlers, our adventure in the windy city was hardly complete. There was still poetry to be had, A-Campers to reunite with, and oh yeah,Ellen DeGeneres.

Ellen sent out a tweet to meet her in Chicago at the bean, wearing something that would make someone smile. Seeing as we only have the clothes in our backpacks, and we still manage to make each other smile every day, we threw on our outfits and headed over to the park. It wasn’t hard to find out where we were supposed to be, as there was a massive crowd of weirdoes that had gathered in hopes of catching Ellen’s attention. There were unicorns, hot dogs, mascots, crazy colored wigs and face paint, all vying for a shot at some camera time.

Unfortunately, Ellen herself was at a studio in LA skyping in to the scene that was unfolding in Millenium Park. However, this did not stop us from an amazing afternoon of unparalleled people watching!

We would have loved to stick around and see which crazy outfit warranted a $10,000 cash prize, but there was poetry to be had! We were on our way to The Green Mill Lounge for some poetry and history. The Green Mill is where the game of poetry slam got started. Its venue host, Marc Smith (so what??) started the game to liven up the open mics and get the audience more involved. The open mic was exciting in that there was a house band, which accompanies the poets with any style of music requested.

Ashley: I’m kind of glad we got in too late to get on the open mic list. It’s intimidating to be at the birthplace of slam and have no idea what kind of music you should pair with your poems! I’ve got lots more to think about if ever I’d like to record some poetry!

After Green Mill, we had a bombshell reunion! We met up with our fellow A Camp cabin member Amanda and another A-Camper, Kay. We caught up, laughed, joked, and bitched about the government shutdown.

It was a great way to end our visit, and the next afternoon we were on a bus headed to Minneapolis.

Our bus ride was 9 hours long and the woman three seats behind us insisted on playing loud music and singing along terribly. So far, we don’t have any megabus horror stories, and we’re grateful for it! However, this was our longest trek yet and we had to come up with all sorts of ways to stay entertained.

We arrived at around 10pm in pouring rain and our Snatch-22 A-Camp cabin mate, Sarah Swindle, was there to pick us up.

Ashley: We were in Minneapolis for the first time back in March when I competed in theWomen of the World Poetry Slam (remember the one you helped me get to?). Everything was covered in snow, and now it’s covered in water. I will forever equate Minneapolis with having lots and lots of weather!

After a night in, we were ready for some adventure! Swindle took us to the Walker Art Museumfor Target Free Thursdays. Swindle is a pro at finding cool free things to do in her city. One of the exhibits was participatory, and we were invited to sit on a large hand woven rug and sip tea with each other!

After we took in all the art, we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota for their Social Science event, Murder at the Museum. We were given a packet of evidence when we entered and had to walk through various exhibits and find clues, examine the crime scene, and interview the suspects. We also got a chance to meet real forensics experts who answered a lot of our questions and gave us real life examples of the things we were learning.

Marine: of course, we spent a lot of time goofing around on the kid’s exhibits too! It was nice to participate in something science related rather than being at a poetry venue. It was a nice departure from the usual, and I got to teach Ashley a few things!

Friday was filled with rain, snuggling and Netflix. After our bout of laziness, we went bowling!Bryant Lake Bowl is a restaurant/theatre/bowling alley and we made it in just in time for happy hour!

After two games and two glasses of wine, we went into the theatre for Bender Gending, a cabaret of popular musical theatre played by the opposite gender it was written for. We heard songs from Rent, Avenue Q, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Fiddler on the Roof, among others. After the show we grabbed a drink outside at the restaurant.

Ashley: An old friend I hadn’t seen since high school contacted me after seeing us on Autostraddle and realized we’d be in her neck of the woods, so we decided to meet up for drinks! It was fun rehashing old times and comparing notes on our old classmates. We had such a good time and invited her out for our adventure the next day!

Saturday, we went to the Afton Apple farm with Susy and Swindle, where we could get lost in the corn mazes, sip on cider, pick apples and see animals at the petting zoo (wearing outfits kinda like this). It is a seasonal treat we don’t find easily back in California.

We managed to stay out of the rain long enough to wander through the corn and sample some fresh picked apples before heading back into the city for a night out!

We made dinner and drinks at home, grabbed some ice cream and then went to Lush nightclub for $1 drinks. It sounded too good to be true, but the rails and drafts were indeed all only $1! The DJ was kind of a dud, but as soon as he played TLC’s No Scrubs, everyone was back out on the floor. The bar had a nice outdoors spot with a fire pit, and we warmed up with some rum chata shots!

After the cab ride home we put on our PJ’s, ordered pizza and danced around in the kitchen to the Spice Girls like a 7th grade slumber party. What Minneapolis offers in weather, it equally matches in character. We may be halfway through our trip, but there are still many adventures ahead!

Up next: More Minneapolis, MN and New Orleans, LA

Columbus and Chicago

Richmond, VA and Durham, NC

Pizza, Pancakes and Poets

We arrived in Richmond, VA Sunday evening and were greeted by the Marshalko family, who came to pick us up from the Megabus station. We piled into the minivan and made it home in time for a family dinner and an impromptu slam poem about soup, recited by 11 year-old Maddie.

Ashley: Chryssa, the mother of this hilarious and fun loving family, was my aunt’s best friend throughout elementary and high school. She’s been present at just about every major life event and it was nice to spend a few days getting to know her and her family.

The Marshalkos live in front of a forest, and beyond the forest is a lake. The day after we arrived we were determined to find it! Of course, we abandoned the trail and set off in flip-flops, so our adventure was a little less Indiana Jones and a little more Troop Beverly Hills.

The next day we went into town and had lunch on Cary Street at a little sushi place, then walked to nearby Byrd Park.

After the park we walked over to Hollywood Cemetery, which has nothing really to do with Hollywood. Marine and I walked around the hill and noticed tons of rebel flags behind the gates of the graveyard, adorning the sides of many of the graves. We soon discovered it was a Confederate burial ground, which is home to old Confederate Army soldiers and lieutenants. The only president of the Confederacy was also buried here and after a bit of googling, we learned that Richmond was the last Confederate capitol. Despite its gloomy and racist history, many locals still return each year with fresh rebel flags to pierce the soil with.

When the cemetery was closing and the sun was setting, the last thing Marine and I wanted to do was spend the night with a bunch of dead Confederates, so we set off for downtown. We walked along the canal, and ended up at the train station where we’d arrived earlier.

It was Tuesday night, so we found $2 burgers and beers at Station 2 and wandered up the street to hit up an open mic at Poe’s Pub. The open mic was pretty much entirely musicians, so they were surprisingly excited to hear a poet hit the stage.

Ashley: In a room of boisterous guys and their guitars, I had no idea how I’d be received as a queer female poet. Actually I was a little nervous, but when I finished they asked me to do a whole set!

After a few more Yuenglings, a failed attempt to stop at Babe’s of Careytown, a Richmond lesbian bar, and some stories about my aunt’s hairstyles in the ‘80’s, we called it quits for the night.

The next day the weather was shockingly beautiful, the Mashalko kids were in school, and Chryssa and Paul packed a picnic and invited us out on their boat, The Spicy Pontuna.

The food was delicious and the scenery was fantastic. We were truly spoiled in Richmond, but we continued on to North Carolina!

Marine: We arrived in North Carolina around 9:00 in the evening and were picked up by our friend and fellow slam poet, Brandon “IShine” Evans. He and his girlfriend Mel put us up and showed us some real Southern hospitality.

We had a lazy Thursday in before getting ready for Slam Charlotte on Friday night. Bluz hosted and featured Kali (remember the girl who beat Ashley at the WOWPS video slam??). Despite the rivalry, Kali’s set was really great and we suggest you check out her work here. Brandon made us all proud and won the slam before joining us for dinner after!

Saturday rolled around cloudy and rainy, but heavy with anticipation. We were headed to the Jambalaya Soul Slam aka Bull City Slam, hosted by Dasan Ahanu.

Ashley: I was the featured poet for the evening and had a short set ready to perform. When I finished, I ended up getting an encore and was asked to nearly double my prepared set! To say I was well-received would be an understatement! That Southern hospitality thing is not a joke!

The slam was a blast and we got a chance to see some brand new talent coming out of the South. Nationals next year in Oakland, CA is going to be a heated bout if this was just a preliminary slam!

Marine: An app I’ve been using throughout the trip to keep our confirmations for planes and trips organized is TripIt. You forward all your bus, flights, etc. confirmation emails to the app and it’s organized by date. All times, locations and confirmation numbers are easily at hand. It’s a free app, but if you’re willing to spend a couple dollars, it will alert you of flight changes for yourself and your travel mates. Leave us comments and let us know what your favorite travel app is!

Sunday morning it was tough to say goodbye, but we arrived at the airport ready for a new set of hellos, a new sea of faces, and a whole new place to explore. We’re on our way to Columbus, OH with hardly a clue what adventure will unfold next.

Up next: Columbus, OH and Chicago, IL