I am currently two days into a two and a half week tour of the southeast US. The plan is to hit Wichita Falls TX, New Orleans, Gainsville, Key West, Miami Beach, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., Louisville and then home!

I spent the first night in Wichita Falls, went out with some old friends, met some new ones. Got drunk in a place where they serve you alcohol in the parking lot and you drink it in your car….

On Sunday we drove from Wichita Falls to New Orleans, Louisiana, parked in the French Quarter and got soaked to the bone in a drving rain that did not let up for 20 minutes. We hit the Quarter for a few hours and then met our host for some beers. Patrick (our host) has been coming back and forth to New Orleans for years. He lives here permanently now and really knows the area. The bar that we met up was in the northeast end of the FQ in an area that is mostly locals. The bars were more friendly, the drinks were cheaper and better endowed and it was a great atmosphere. We sucked up some booze and live music and crashed at Patrick’s comfortable place in Uptown.

Monday we hooked up with Daniel in the French Quarter. He is a very organized host and takes it seriously. He has a wonderul place that is cool, comfortable and well furnished. He showed us around some of the local spots and we hit good waffles in the morning at a diner. It is stifling hot in New Orleans right now.  And we spent a good part of the early afternoon just chillin in Dan’s nice house. I called the Royal Sonesta hotel.  They are located in the middle of the quarter in a beautiful location on Bourbon St. I told them that I stay there every year for Mardi Gras (which I do) and that I was just in New Orleans visiting some friends. I asked if we could use the pool. The manager said they don’t have a particular way that it is done like that, but if we walked into the hotel and to the pool and did not cause any trouble, they probably would not even notice. The next five hours was spent in the pool and drinking beers. By the end of the day the burning sun had fought back and forth with pouring rain on several occasions, both were very welcome.  Today we head out for Gainsville Fl it is about 600 miles of driving with the stop we are making in Panama City to drop off a fellow couchsurfer………

Couchsurfing AT the campout!

Recently I had the chance to meet up with about 300 other couchsurfers at the first annual campout just south of Denver in South Park, Colorado. It was four days of drinking, camping, drinking, hiking and drinking. I hiked into the mountains a couple of days up to 12,200 feet and got some great photos at the snowline. I drank way too much, froze my f@#king ass off, and took a lot of photos! I met so many wonderful people saw and did things that will be with me forever.

Mark Miner

180 Pictures from the campout! if you want to download any of the pictures, highlight it and then hit the download button!

My couchsurfing profile!!! <- Click here to see it.

Amy IS salsa!

First of all, let me say. I think they really got something right with this couchsurfing….

Recently I had the chance to visit Chicago CS style. I packed up some road food, (tortillas, peanut butter, honey and chips) loaded up my audio book and set out for Chicago from Des Moines. First stop was the wonderful condo very near downtown of Daryl, a 30yr old OR nurse who has been with couchsurfing since 2007. He showed me his place, gave me a set of keys to the very secure building and then he left for work. The place was great, had a spare bedroom and bathroom, and was in a wonderful location. I made a tortilla with PB and honey and headed out to Chicago on the EL train. Ten minutes later I was downtown. Over the next two days a fellow couchsurfer, Zac arrived and we hit a number of museums. (I have a membership to the Sci center of Des Moines, this got us into the field museum, The Chicago science center and the Adler planetarium all at NO charge.) Daryl had to work days so he caught up with us nights and showed us around Chicago including the best place to take a skyline picture!

We were having a wonderful time in Chicago and no place yet to stay on Friday. (Daryl had other surfers coming in) We went to the Chicago couchsurfing event on Thursday night. I met a bunch of cool couchsurfers including Amy and Greg. Greg said we could crash wherever he was crashing on Friday night. Amy was having a salsa party fundraiser on Friday night and she invited Zac and I to go. When we arrived we could hear the salsa music from a block away. It was great fun, there were many interesting people there. We met Amy’s roomates and all of us went out for drinks afterward. Everybody was very nice. We ended up staying at Amy’s place which was just a short walk from the bar. She had a great place, a comfy couch and a great shower! I left for home on Saturday morning. Viva la couchsurfing!!!

Mark

Random pics from this trip!

Ok, everyone who knows me knows that I love movies. I just finished a movie an hour ago that was great! “In Bruges” This movie is in my new top ten movies of all time.

Basically the plot is this. A pair of hitmen ‘f’ up a hit with a collateral kill that had not been intended. The boss that ordered the hit tells them to cool their heals in Bruges, Belgium while things blow over. Colin Farrell is one of the hitmen and he is too hip to be stuck in “f’n Bruges.” He gets himself in some major trouble instead of ‘laying low’. The movie is funny as hell, dark and just plain great! Below is a link to the trailer.

Watch this movie and then leave me a comment about what you thought of it!

Trailer for the fab movie “In Bruges”