Cloud USA

— Written by: Stephe Thornton, Managing Editor ^@@^

PART 4 (final): Georgia (and Virginia) on our minds. Monday, October 24.

Getting the heck out of Dodge. After being in valet parking two days straight (which had to be a lot like jail: they lock you up, throw away the key, and identify you by a number), Terri’s sporty red Cloudmobile had to be as glad to see us as we were to see her. Our terrific Hotel Chandler bellmen loaded her up with our stuff Monday morning, bid us a fond farewell, and we were away.

Two thoughts struck us as we made our way to the Lincoln Tunnel—we hadn’t had time to go by The Blue Fin for dessert (drats! drats-drats!) and NYC pedestrians are not like Atlanta pedestrians. Pedestrians in the A.T.L. are really bold and pretty much walk wherever the heck they want, even right down the middle of a street, but one thing they do not do is walk against lights downtown, because they know they’ll get ridden on a bumper or dragged under a car or killed in a crosswalk. That wasn’t the case in NYC—on that day, at least. Didn’t matter what light was red, yellow, green, purple, or any other color, pedestrians were traipsing across every crosswalk in herds, as if they hadn’t a care in the world, right in front of your moving car sometimes, as if thinking, no prob, whoever it is will stop. Which made us very nervous. Because in Atlanta, we don’t. And our pedestrians know that.

So, before we could catch a murder case, we got the hell on. With a quickness.

Sayonara, Manhattan! Sayonara, live KPop! Sayonara, Rain at Koryo Books! It’s been real!

Detour. Going home involved an entirely different route because we had another Cloud to see—dear Dianne, my very first Facebook friend and Cloud USA‘s second blog subscriber waaaaay back in our very first month of existence. Upon finding out we were coming to New York, she had invited us to her home in Virginia and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Not that we would’ve said no. Talk about being excited. I couldn’t believe I was going to finally meet her face to face after hobnobbing online for almost two years. We couldn’t wait to get there!

We ended up waiting though, because after the long haul up the Jersey toll roads and turnpike, and through a memorial tunnel in Delaware (underwater again! arghhhh!), we hit Virginia rush hour traffic and CREPT THROUGH THE DOGGONE STATE. For MILES.  For HOURS.

Pitiful scenario #1
Terri’s GPS (after we were already sitting in the middle of a snarl): [pleasant female computer voice] “Congestion has been reported ahead—”
Terri (in a huff): “You’re a little late with that information.”
Stephe (in a huff) : “Nice timing, yo.”
GPS: [still pleasant female computer voice]”Congestion has been reported ahead—”
Terri and Stephe (in unison): “SHUT UP!”

Pitiful scenario #2
Terri takes her hands off the steering wheel, slumps down in her seat, and gapes at the parking lot of a highway in front of her.
Stephe presses her face and palms against the passenger window and silently begs passing motorists to tell her wae-wae?
Rain continues to sing “Why of All Things?!”(Wae Hapil?!) at the top of his lungs.

Bless Dianne’s heart. Her keeping us hip to just where we were, by phone, really helped to keep us sane, and sure enough, just after dark, we swung into the cutest neighborhood you ever did see and parked at the quaintest Craftsman-style home on the block. We had made it!

It rained and Rained in Virginia! After one of the warmest hugs that I’ve ever gotten in my life, Dianne ushered us into the house where her dear hubby was waiting with a welcoming smile and a variety of beverages. She was exactly as I thought she’d be—soft-spoken yet very passionate about things she believed in, friendly, gracious, full of lots of fun and endless conversation, and full of admiration for Rain. Her husband was just a sweetheart, easy-going, and wouldn’t rest until we were comfortable. Cozy house, great couple. We immediately relaxed and shrugged off the trials of the day.

You know you’ve met a kindred spirit when you don’t have to think of things to say… rather, natural conversation just rolls right off your tongue. You know you’ve met a devoted Cloud when the Rain stash comes out! And what a stash it was. This is only a small part of it, though. The rest was stored upstairs in her bedroom, and by the time she thought about it, hubby had already retired for the night, and we didn’t want to be rude and wake him up. (Boy, I would have given my eyetooth to get a look at her Road For Rain DVD set, though!)

(A little ditty ’bout Stephe and Dianne…)

(To the left, to the left…)

(Pan to the middle…)

(Pan to the right…)

(Now stop. Somebody scream! Rain from his “First Drop” album.)

(Terri and Di standing in the Rain without umbrellas…)

 We’re hoping that one of these days Dianne will email us pictures of her entire stash. Or I just might have to show back up on her doorstep with a suitcase, on a mission to “get evidence of the goods”. 😀

Of real chopsticks and Bek Se Ju. Terri and I hadn’t had supper yet, so Di ushered us into her big comfy truck and took us to a favorite Korean barbecue place of hers in town—Mrs. Choi’s Kitchen, a casual place where we enjoyed some mighty fine authentic dining. Mrs. Choi had a lovely eye-smile, and it was clear that Di was a regular there. I must admit, when I first saw the pretty chopsticks on the table—very slender and made of metal, not wood—I nearly panicked. I’m not half-bad with wooden ones after six months, but I’d always heard that real utensils were slippery and unforgiving unless you knew exactly what you were doing. But hey, since when does a Cloud back down from a challenge like that?

To my utter surprise, I had no trouble at all and actually ate better with the metal chopsticks! More delicious pork on my hips—Yay! Terri surprised herself and did well too. So cool. Ah, what a meal! Mrs. Choi definitely knew how to cook and in no time we three were as full as ticks and chasing our food with some 백 세주 (Bek Se Ju) by Kooksoondang Breweries, a traditional rice wine brewed with rice-corn and ginseng and eleven other different herbs, straight from Seoul, South Korea. (백 is 100 in Sino-Korean numbers, so the name “100-years wine” is  certainly appropriate for a beverage that claims to help you live 100 years, yes?) Talk about mellow and yummy… but we couldn’t go overboard because there was still driving to do later on. And that se ju had a kick to it. Haha.

(Di snuck and picked up the tab while we weren’t paying attention, and looked all innocent and such when we caught her. What a sweetheart.)

It was still raining outside when we left the restaurant, not a hard downpour, but just enough of a gentle misting to let you know it was there. That’s right, I said still raining, because the moment we had left the Rain stash inside her house and stepped out onto Di’s porch to go to Mrs. Choi’s, it had begun raining outside. LOL. We were like, wow JiHoon, really? Three Clouds float outside together and here you come running?

Where Clouds gather, it will always Rain. You can count on it. 🙂

Back at the house, we had more fun watching KBS World and dishing about life and about our favorite South Korean mega-entertainer as Dianne’s beagle and kitties looked on. Staying overnight in Virginia was such an inviting thought—Di and hubby had more than enough room and were hoping we would—but we really needed to get a little further down the road so that we wouldn’t have so far to go on Tuesday. So with reluctant hearts and hot coffee for the road fresh out of Di’s kitchen, we bid our friend farewell and put tires to pavement one final time that night.

Di, you’re an amazing woman and we loved meeting you at last. Thanks for opening your home to us. I’m so glad you’re my friend!

The homestretch.  We rested up good and proper overnight in North Carolina, and the next morning hit the homestretch.  It was a straight shot down I-85 from there, a terrific ride during which Terri’s awesome Pop-laden iPod really earned its keep. You would not believe all the goodness she has on that thing. We started off a’shufflin’ between the Black Eyed Peas, Lupe Fiasco, and many other greats, and then we went all BEAST, and then all SHINee, and then all TVXQ. It was all Rain, however, once we hit the Georgia line. Leave it to JiHoon to bring us on home with a spectacular sunset.

I think we’re both in agreement that with all the amazing things we saw and did over those four days—believe me, we feel so blessed to have experienced it and we’ll treasure those things forever—the most precious time of all were those last several hundred miles where there was nothing that needed to be done and we were simply two best friends gabbing about the things nearest and dearest to our individual hearts.

Yep. I’m Terri’s “Oprah”, she’s my “Gayle,” and after eighteen years of friendship, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Color this Cloud USA roadtrip successful—we found Rain and KPop in a major way. I hope y’all enjoyed the ride!

Until our next adventure…

— Stephe @cloudusa.wordpress.com / CloudUSA.org

Posted in Bi Rain, Bi Rain News, Cloud USA, Jung Ji Hoon
Tags: bi rain stash, cloud usa community members, Cloud USA News, Cloud USA roadtrip, Jung Ji Hoon, Korean pop, rain bi