The end of my voyage (and a $506 stripper bill!)

July 31, 2012

Alfred, NY (HOME)

Lots of fun to be had in Nashville

 

Well its all over now and I'm finally home again. The last four days of the trip were grueling tests of endurance due to bad weather and long mileage to say the least but I finally made it. While the beginning of my stay at the Music City Hostel in Nashville wasn't very impressive, I finally met some cool people at the end of the night but to my disappointment they all ran off to bed early leaving me with an incredibly boring group of people. It seemed like they were all trying to make it as musicians in a city that was about to eat them whole, all the time while discussing how little known singer songwriters had deeply influenced there lives. Being a musician myself you'd think I'd have a little more compassion for these people, but so late in my trip I don't think I had the energy to make the effort. I listened to there stories, one girls demo which wasn't too bad, but couldn't help feel that I was past that point in my life. While I'd love to be able to get paid to bring my music on the road I'm all to familiar with the incredible odds against them and quite frankly feel past that stage in my life. Now when I play I like to play for fun and just for myself, and ever since that orientation has changed music became that more special to me. That's not to say that people who really love it shouldn't try to make something more of it, maybe just don't spend the entire night talking about it...

An incredible view near the CS host in Covington

From there I moved on to Cincinnati, or to be more precise right across the river in Covington Kentucky. Without a doubt the end of that leg was one of the worst I had experienced because a hundred miles from my couch surfing destination the weather seemed to simply go insane. The wind started to blow pushing my bike back and forth on the road causing me to have to lean heavily into the massive gusts, tree pieces and leaves quickly filled the air, the sky grew dark, and before I knew it I was crawling along a road covered in downed trees with the rain pounding down on me. The storm I had hit in Florida had been pretty bad if not short, but the downed trees everywhere followed by the gushing wind and rain definitely challenged my abilities to the max. Yet being so close to my stop for the night I felt like I had to push on and I eventually made it exhausted and soaked to the bone.

That night in Covington I had a really nice host from Couch Surfing who for the first time was a female. She was a college professor close to my age and we spent the whole night swapping travel stories and helping her plan her next big trip. It was a nice night, but I was exhausted so I hit the hay early and was rewarded with a great early start in the morning.

The next stop from there was Cleveland, Ohio this time staying with some of my best friends from my work and the night proved to be one of the most memorable on the trip. It was Troy and his girlfriend Malory (always up for a great time!) and this time they were accompanied by two of Troy's friends (we'll change their names to Lucky and Marco for privacy).

The beginning of the night was great. We went to two different breweries, had dinner, and made our way downtown for some drunken fun at a few of the local bars. But soon enough Troy and Malory got tired (OK around 2am) so we headed back to the Bed and Breakfast with them, all the while conspiring on what our next move would be between the guys. Unfortunately earlier that night we had noticed an interesting place located pretty close to one of the areas we were at and in our incredible state, and being 3 men it seemed like the perfect idea for the end to a fun evening: a strip club.

After dropping the two tired lovers off we made our way back out to see what more trouble we could get into, and trouble at the club was what we found. As soon as we got their we went to the ATM's and took out what we could ($12 service fee!!). Because it was the end of the trip for me there was really not a lot left so I settled for making dirty jokes and hanging out with the others. However, after being inside for no more then 20 minutes my cash was gone and the two other guys were no where to be found. I made numerous circles of the club creepily peering into every dark corner trying to find my friends while no doubt appearing to be a real creep checking out everyone at the club.

After what seemed like forever, I was about to give up when I finally came upon Lucky standing next to two gorgeous scantily clad women. The look on his face said trouble as he was just starring dumbfounded at his credit card and wallet, while the two girls starred at him clearly frustrated and waiting. As I approached him out of no where Marco showed up as well and both reaching Lucky at the same time we asked him what happened.

With a mix of sheepish drunkenness (and a look on his face I will never be able to describe) he finally admitted that he owed the club a little bit of money. Now we had only been in there for about 30 minutes so we both quickly agreed to help him out and do what we could To our complete and total shock though in no time at all he had managed to spend all his cash and wrack up a FIVE HUNDRED AND SIX DOLLAR (NOT PESOS!) bill on nothing more then a few private dances with the two girls in the VIP room. While I was totally unable to help him, thankfully Marco could and with a showing of true friendship paid the bill and we ran out of there in total shock.

It turned out that he had spent the rest of cash for the night and was now left with nothing but his company credit card, though I suspect that may be a little difficult to justify to IRS or his business. Thankfully we made it out of there though, and for the rest of the night me and Marco got endless entertainment out of the situation. “Want a glass of water? Sure! $506 please!” “Tonight was fun, don't know if I'd spend $506 on it though.” “What was the extra $6 dollars for?” “Did you remember to leave a tip?” Things like that which at the time seemed truly hilarious to me and Marco (which were always followed by even more hilarious rants from Lucky), but I'm pretty sure that he learned his lesson.

Without a doubt the girls had seen us enter and had instantly ascertained that we were somewhat new to the strip club scene so they quickly divided us up, and then unquestionably conquered (at least one of us!). More power to them though. I ended up talking to one of the girls waiting for her exorbitant fee and she seemed really nice and told me she was saving up for a trip back home to Syria (or Serbia or something like that its hard to remember). At the very least Lucky should have realized by the end of the night that not all was lost though, because after all was said and paid for he can now tell others that he helped a poor girl fly back to her country, or at least a large portion of her trip.

A Casino in the middle of the beautiful Catteragaus County

After a gorgeous drive the next day through the beautiful Allegany and Catteragaus County of New York (making only a a few stops to aid some minor discomforts from my late night the day before) I finally rolled into my home town to see my parents waiting for me outside my favorite local bar. Jumping off the bike as quickly as I could I hugged them both and at that point I knew I was home. I may have woken up the morning after totally disoriented not knowing where the hell I was, but the transition definitely takes times. While I love to travel, see new sights, and experience new cultures, the one thing I love more then that is my family. They've always been there to support me in my endeavors (though I know this last one was a little bit of a challenge for them), and between my friends in Cleveland and my parents it was the perfect ending to the trip. We had a nice normal dinner for the first time in a really long time, I told them about Lucky and some of my numerous other crazy stories, and for a short time I was really happy and content to be home.

PS- Sorry this post came so late. It turns out the last thing not to make the voyage was my laptop cable so between that and my incredibly busy last few days this was the best I could do!