SleepingPoliceman

Apologies for the delay – it’s been a long week. But we’ll get to that later. First, the end of the road trip.

I didn’t go to sleep as early as I wanted to in Salina, but I still got a pretty good night’s sleep. Lisa did go to bed as early as she wanted, but she woke up around 3:30am. So nobody won. Except the people who wanted to look at our extensive collection of pictures on the trip, as Lisa took the time Thursday morning to put what we had online. I, of course, am not sure where they are right now – but I’ll get the info from her and post them here. For now, you’ll just get more highlights. Anyway, we were up and out the door by 6:30am so we could get to our destination before it got too damn hot.

Since everything is over and done with now, I feel comfortable telling you that at this point in the trip there seemed to be something seriously amiss with the brakes on the Subaru. The ol’ XAH had started to do this thing where it would shake when you touched the brakes at high speed, and when coming to a full stop it would chug-chug-chug to a halt. Not cool. They weren’t, you know, dangerous or anything…the car still stopped on time and all that. It was just not cool. The speculation amongst those who know more about these things than I do (which is pretty much everyone) was that this came from a combination of overheating and excessive use in the Rockies, and that it would get better over time. Still, as we hit the road in Salina with the brakes being a little annoying, it added an unnecessary layer of tension.

(So as not to unnecessarily keep you in suspense, I’ll tell you know that the issue was old and thinning rotors on the tires. Apparently this was a looming issue that would have needed to be dealt with eventually anyway, but was probably exacerbated by the drive out here. Thanks to the Midas in Marina Del Rey for letting me know and for taking my $500 to fix the issue.)

So we set out across the desert of Utah. It wasn’t as bad this time as it had been the day before – Lisa did not freak out nearly as much. There were more cars around, and the desert had a little more green to it. After finishing our fun jaunt through the Salt Lake state, we entered the last new state for me: Arizona. And then about 20 minutes later we left it. Thanks for the good times, AZ.

Just as the sun got up high enough in the sky for us to start really feeling it, we got into the Vegas metropolitan area. After circling around the Strip, we chug-chugged our way through the strip malls and up to the house of our friends Christian and Maria Jose around 10:30 in the morning. Maria welcomed us very warmly (and not just because it was already 103 outside…zing!), and we accepted her welcome by immediately going upstairs and taking a four hour nap. Which was maybe the best sleep I’ve ever had in my life.

Properly refreshed, we woke up and hung out in their really awesome house. They had a nice huge TV (which Christian later referred to as his baby, without much consideration to the fact that he also referred to his recently purchased motorcycle as his baby) and some excellent sandwich makings. We had sort of planned on heading down to the Strip to hang out for our evening in Vegas, but we were so wiped and it was so hot and we so needed to just chill that instead we hung out at their place. Christian got home from law-ing and we sat around enjoying some Olympics and hummus. When the sun had gone down and the temperature dropped to a mild 95, we went onto the back patio where Christian fired up both the grill and the mister machine. Stories were told, brats were eaten, and a good time was had by all. Lisa also lost $5 by betting Christian that I would sweat heavily even in the “dry heat” of Nevada. There was sweating, but not as much as they had agreed upon. Stupid evaporation costing us money.

It was so nice there that before going to sleep I asked Lisa if she wanted to just stay there another day so we could rest up before hitting L.A. She wisely said that was a really dumb plan. But still…it would have been very relaxing.

The next morning we were up and out the door a little before 7am, just around the time that Christian and Maria Jose were heading off to a farm equipment auction. (Don’t ask.) We got on the highway and headed west one last time. We crossed more desolate desert terrain, but it wasn’t as off-putting as Utah had been since there were a bunch of people making the Vegas-SoCal trip in both directions. We saw a random casino complex sitting impotently on the route, I guess for either really low-end gamblers that find Old Vegas too high end or for people who need to crash out on the drive coming or going. We saw the random oasis-y water park. We entered California, our twelfth and final state on the trip. We passed Baker and Barstow.

Then we entered the L.A. metropolitan area. Traffic increased, but never was too awful. The car still didn’t like it too much when we had to brake, but was otherwise holding up fine. We followed Lily, our GPS friend, and soon enough we were turning off Silver Lake Boulevard onto Rob and Anjali’s street. After many miles and many hours, we had arrived. And, lo, it was good.

Update on these little update sections: the week-long delay has removed from my memory the things I was going to mention in these things. I’m sure there were witty and/or pithy things to say about the weather or the traffic or the sights ‘n sounds of the drive. But I can’t think of them right now. I’ll get back to you if I do.

Tiredness moment of the trip: After getting up early in the hotel in Salina, Lisa was so tired after the drive started that she needed to break out the pillow and take a nap in the car. That may not seem like a big deal, but she’s one of those people who never likes to sleep in a moving vehicle. So it was huge. And it allowed me to sneak in some albums just for me on the radio. Victory all around.

Gas prices: I honestly don’t remember. But I know that here in L.A. it’s around $4, +/- 10 cents. Unless you drive your rented Mustang out into Beverly Hills…then it’s like $4.40. Thankfully, Lisa didn’t need to fill the tank there.

Music listened to, Thursday: The Beatles – The Beatles (aka The White Album); The Killers – Hot Fuss (in honor of our approach to Vegas – I think we only listened to the first half, though); Marillion – Marbles; a sampling of Billy Joel’s greatest hits; and my Rage Against The Machine mix to bring us home to Henderson.

Music listened to, Friday: Aerosmith’s greatest hits; Kevin Gilbert – Thud; and a sizable mix of the Police that closed out our journey to the city of angels.

License plates: the last plate we saw on the drive was just as we were getting into the heart of Los Angeles, when an RV trailer pulling up next to us had Montana on it. Fuck yeah. After arriving, while, traveling around L.A. before Lisa had to return home, we saw Mississippi, Alabama and Hawaii. So that’s 49 of the 50 actual states, plus the extras like D.C., US Gov’t and ones from Canada and Mexico. The moral of the story: screw you, Alaska. You’re just too far away.

So here I am…in Los Angeles. Orientation is over, T.A. training is over, and classes start on Monday. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. But so far so good. It was a fabulous trip, and a nice little vacation. And it was of course great to make the trip with Lisa. As she commented regularly, it was amazing that we never got mad at each other or sick of each other, and that it was pretty much fun the whole time (barring the occasional freak-outs on both sides). Of course, there’s a chance that every time she said this, what she meant was that she was mad at and/or sick of me. But I’ll choose to believe that’s not the case.

There’s more to tell about our time together here in L.A. There’s staying on Rob and Anjali’s couch, enduring late night covert attacks from their cat Milhouse. There’s the Marina Del Rey experience, with the pool and the shopping malls. There’s the drive up to Malibu for dinner next to the water. And there’s stuff from school to talk about and the hunt for the elusive fall sublet. There was a lot going on in the past few weeks. And I didn’t even have to use my AK; I gotta say it was a good trip.

After seven days, 3,019 (or so) miles, and many recharges on the iPod, we have arrived in L.A. A longer post about the last two days will be up shortly, but currently Lisa and I are heading out with Rob and Anjali to grab some dinner.

So ends the cross country road trip, and so begins the west coast adventure.

(This was going to be an image of the Google map showing our route from Brighton to Silverlake. It didn’t work out because I couldn’t find a way to save the image, and I have to go change my shirt before heading out. Sorry.)

And here we are at our last hotel of the journey, a Rodeway Inn located in Salina, Utah. I have no idea what is going on in Salina apart from the string of diners, fast food joints and motels right off I-70. I also don’t know why it’s spelled “Rodeway.” What I do know is that these three hotel stays will allegedly lead to me getting a $50 gas card. Thanks, random promotion thing. I can totally use that gas money tomorrow. (And by tomorrow, I mean in 6-8 weeks when the paperwork gets processed and the card is mailed to me. Still, I’ll probably need gas money then too…a win is a win.)

To bring you up to date: Tuesday saw us waking up in Lexington to a relaxing morning in the hotel. As we were going to be staying with Juliebeth and Josh, and as both of them were going to be working until a little before 5pm, and as we were only 4-to-4.5 hours away, we felt no sense of urgency in getting ourselves together. Once we worked out our meeting-up plans with Julie, we got ourselves into the car and drove past a bunch more corn fields. This stretch of Nebraska was…remarkably similar to the parts we had seen the day before. A lot of flatness, and a lot of corn fields.

Entering Colorado changed the scenery to…a bunch of corn fields and swaths of sunflowers. The first 50 or so miles really didn’t change too much, which made the whole, “John Denver is so full of shit” jokes that much funnier. (For me, anyway. After about the fifth time I said it, Lisa seemed to seriously consider punching me until I stopped talking.)

Stops we made along the way included a very authentic roadside diner right over the border in Crook, Colorado. Most of the vehicles in the parking lot were tractor trailers, and when we walked in approximately 78% of the people in the diner were unironically wearing cowboy hats. It also sort of felt like we walked in and everyone stopped talking and turned to look us over. We bounded in with confidence, though, and no one seemed to have a problem. The waitress who was missing a few teeth (and whose teeth she did have were brown and somehow shriveled) was very nice to us, and brought us very tasty grilled chicken meals. Lisa felt adventurous enough to dip into the salad bar; I lacked that much courage. Every table had four or five “humor” books by this one guy who, apparently, thinks he’s pretty funny. And he’s published about 15 different books (all of the “Things To Do With Crabby People” and “Ways Men Don’t Understand Women” and “How To Pretend You’re A Normal Person” variety), so I guess other people think he’s funny too. Flipping through the books while waiting for our food, I found the same joke in three different books. In his defense, it was a joke about a wife leaving her husband because he wears dark green socks with a light green suit…and when you have a brick solid 24 karat gold like that, you gotta make the cufflinks as well as the watch.

We got on the road again, making sure to not hit the four guys wearing cowboy hats and Wranglers who were having a boisterous conversation about different types of IN-surance. After a little while, the terrain became a little more desert-y and the hills began. We were rising up up up towards the ol’ Mile High City. And the traveling was definitely about to change.

Entering Denver a little before 4pm, we slid to J&J’s place before rush hour picked up. Because we parked the car just as Julie called to tell us she was leaving work, we had time to go across the street and check out the very nice park they live near. (I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s the same park that has the big IMAX theater, the zoo, and the natural history museum…anyone who knows Denver can feel free to jump in and fill in my details for me.) Near the water we could see a very nice boathouse, but it was sort of blocked off by this orange public safety fence (the kind that seems to be made with the same material as six-pack rings) that went around the water. Apparently, that’s up in advance of the Democratic National Convention. Which, as Bostonians know, is a seriously disruptive affair. While we chilled by the bench in front of the orange fence, it began to drizzle…so we returned to the shelter of our car. There we wondered whether the two neighbors who have a bird feeder and a fake scarecrow-esque owl in their respective windows are locked in some sort of pigeon-based epic feud. Then Julie came home and saved us from ourselves.

We had a nice time catching up with both of them. After playing with their dog and avoiding their cat (due to Lisa’s allergies…it would have been disastrous if any feline hair had found its way onto our possessions or into the vehicle), they took us out to a very nice vegetarian restaurant. There we talked about bad TV shows, nursery school shenanigans and whether or not I wear pants. Josh had let it be known that he had two free tickets to the Rockies/D-backs game…and since we wanted to check out downtown anyway, after dinner we drove down to the greater Coors Field area. Two scalped tickets ($8 each…such a different world, even if it was openly raining during the transaction) later, we all entered the park. Yes, we were very west coast and didn’t get there until the 4th inning. No, that doesn’t mean I won’t be counting this towards my MLB ballpark totals (which now sits at 15 of the 30 active parks, plus 4 defunct ones…Coors was very nice, if a little same-y when compared to the other post-Camden ballyards…since you were wondering). Anyway, we climbed up to the mile-high purple seats until a very old security guard told us we had to move down closer to the field. It was strange to be disappointed when you’re told to go to nicer seats. So we sat and watched Colorado lose while talking extensively about The Dark Knight. Great fans, I know.

After the game, we walked around a little, then returned to their apartment to stay up way too late talking way too much. (OK, I did a lot of the talking. It’s what I do.) Sleep started late and ended early, and Lisa and I were saying goodbye and hitting the road by 6:15am. Leaving Denver, we immediately entered the hardcore mountain-y part of the trip. Which was really over-the-top awesome when you talk about the scenery…overwhelmingly beautiful and awe-inspiring stuff happening at every turn, with huge mountains popping up all around us. It was not-so-awesome when you have to deal with the whole “driving up and down very steep grades with giant trucks and high-speed locals hindering you left and right” component. It definitely took a toll on the vehicle, and took a strong toll on us as well. Driving very early in such extreme conditions was a little difficult. But after a stop at a great little coffee shop in Vail, we regrouped and got ourselves back in the swing of things.

We let ourselves and the car take a break in Grand Junction, were we met up with Jeff Hober (of Melrose and SJP fame) and his lovely wife. We had an early lunch at a place called the Ale House. It was quality, and it was great to catch up with him, even if we’re reaching the point where we keep bringing out the same stories every day to new audiences. It’s almost like we’re on tour. Except totally different.

Saying goodbye after graciously letting the Hobers pay, we fought our way through the desert. We had hoped to leave Grand Junction by 11 or 11:30…but with the mountain driving taking longer than expected, and lunch lasting longer as well…we weren’t on the road to Utah until a little before 1pm. Because we were under the mid-day sun we were trying to avoid, we were extra careful with the car. This was definitely the most strenuous day of driving, if strenuous is a fair word to use in describing something like this. Lisa may or may not have had a little freak out when I said, “Hey, we’re only 107 miles to our hotel!” and then we immediately drove by a sign that said, “No services on this road for the next 106 miles.” But the engine temperature gauge never got above the halfway point, and we pulled safely into this place around 4:40 Mountain time. We came inside, decompressed a little and then watched the ESPN broadcast of the Red Sox game. Then a quick meal, and the blogging began.

To conclude, I’d say that everyone should try to do the Denver-to-Utah drive on I-70 at some point. You should maybe try to avoid doing it in a 13 year old car laden down with a bunch of luggage. But, you know, take what you can get. It’s a phenomenal stretch of road. Really phenomenal.

Favorite sign on the road: quite a few times in the mountain-y part of Colorado, there were highway caution signs letting everyone know, “Mowing Operations Ahead.” For some reason, this amused me to no end. I don’t know if or when I’m ever going to have a place with a yard, but if/when I do I’m going to put up a “Mowing Operations Ahead” sign whenever I’m trimming the lawn.

Weather Note #1: after telling Juliebeth and Josh about the brief drizzle we experienced in the park near their place, they went into a semi-extended discourse about how Denver doesn’t really experience much weather, and that the few drops of rain we felt would be the only precipitation the city would have for a few weeks. Within five minutes it was downpouring on us. Granted, the rain only lasted for about 10 or 15 minutes…but the irony was delicious.

Weather Note #2: the desert driving through Utah was pretty intense, with the temperatures in the high 90s and the sun beating down mercilessly. Then, for the last 30 or so miles, a bunch of clouds came out of nowhere and shielded us. I’ve never loved a group of Cumulus (Cumuli?) more in my life.

Strangest moment of Wednesday: during that Utah drive, we had the vents turned up to high. The temperature bar was set to cool, but the air was mainly hot…I’m sure that helped keep the engine in check, so we were fine with it. We just had the windows rolled down to get some extra circulation. Which was fine…until the moment when we heard a click and saw something zoom across the front seat. Looking down next to the gear shift, we found the body of a relatively large (half-finger length) flying bug…without a head. We could only assume that the click was the bug hitting the half-rolled-down window, when it decapitated itself (or when we decapitated it, depending on where you want to imply the blame lies). It was gross, and very weird. Hopefully it’s the strangest creature encounter we have on this trip.

Gas prices: only one fill-up on each of the last two days. Outside Denver on Tuesday it was around $3.70, and Wednesday in Grand Junction it was $3.78. Can’t wait to get to L.A. so I can get on the paying-$4.50-plus-a-gallon train. (Which, ironically, is the only train anyone ever rides in L.A.)

Best news of the day: I received an email from the professor I interviewed with on Monday…and he offered me a TAship for the fall. So that means a little stipend and a lot of tuition reimbursement, plus a great experience in a very interesting class. Good times all around.

Music listened to, Tuesday: Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Rob’s AC/DC mix; Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Greatest Hits; and then Lisa created an OTG playlist on her iPod that consisted of over 100 songs from the 80s and 90s that wouldn’t be covered by any album, greatest hits or mix that we’d put on otherwise. We listened to that for the rest of our brief(ish) trip to Denver, despite there being multiple Madonna songs involved.

Music listened to, Wednesday: a continuation of Lisa’s 80s/90s mix; U2 – Under A Blood Red Sky (in honor of Red Rocks); Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid; Peter Gabriel – So; Genesis’ self titled album; back to the 80s/90s mix for a while; finishing up the last leg with Led Zeppelin – How The West Was Won.

License plates: Tuesday we added Oregon, Virginia and North Dakota, with Wednesday bringing us New Mexico. We also saw a state-less license plate that was just designated, “U.S. Government.” We’re going to go ahead and count that as a different state…it’s certainly it’s own deal. So taking the government into account as another U.S. state, that means we have 47 of 52. We are missing the following five: Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Mississippi and Alabama. Those are going to be pretty obscure, given our route the next two days. But…miracles can happen. That’s right…miracles.

So that’s the update for now. Tomorrow morning (in about seven hours), we’ll be hitting the road again and trekking down to Vegas. Hopefully we’ll arrive by 10am PST, which will allow us to avoid that 107 degree heat that is supposed to kick in by noon. Then we’re on to L.A. the next morning. Strange to think that we’re very close to this trip being over. It seems like we just left. And it also seems that we’ve been doing this for about a month and a half. Basically, we have no idea what’s going on…but what else is new?

New photos coming momentarily. Next update either from Vegas or the city of Angels. Roll on, roll on…

Greetings from Lexington, Nebraska. Another night in a Comfort Inn, so another night of internet access. A lot of stuff has gone on in the past couple of days, so let’s get right into it.

Early-ish morning in Elyria got us out and back onto Route 90 by a little after 9am. Western Ohio through Indiana and into Chicago. We fought our way through Loop traffic to make it to Paco and Lindsay’s place, situated two blocks away from the Hancock tower. So, uhh, yeah, a pretty nice location. And just a fantastic apartment over all…Lisa and I were very jealous. And also grateful, as Paco hooked us up with free parking in his building’s garage. (I’m pretty sure Lindsay had nothing to do with the parking pass, as it’s my understanding she has never had any interaction or business dealings with the gentlemen in the garage.) Which means that it was a great setup all around.

So we parked and stretched our legs by walking around Chicago a little, enjoying some tapas and walking across the river (via bridge, not like Jesus) over to Millennium Park. While standing next to the giant reflective lima bean, we got in touch with Brian and Tara who were also in town. We met up with them, despite their refusal to help the Red Sox pull out a win against their White compatriots of Chicago. (Seriously, make an effort…come on.) Paco and Lindsay had to go enjoy a family dinner (happy birthday again, Lindsay), so we tagged out to B&T to move on to the evening’s festivities.

A first successful (if you count only one instance of being flung into a crowd full of Chicagoans successful) L train ride later, we were in Wrigleyville, experiencing the buzz of a Cubs/Cardinals game. After soaking in the atmosphere, we walked down Clark to a nice little establishment called Uncommon Ground. Which is where we saw a special acoustic performance of the Boston-based Brendan Boogie Band. A very nice show with an almost equally good veggie burger. A timely pick-up from Paco and Lindsay, a brief stop for ice cream, and we picked up our car and hit the road again for some night-time driving to the ‘burbs. Which is were we slept, in a fantastic house graciously provided to us by Lisa’s cousins. And if you haven’t already noted that a big component of this trip is mooching off of friends and loved ones, you haven’t really been paying attention.

That was yesterday (Sunday). Today was driving-heavy. Up at 8am, cleaning up a little, and then out of the Chicago suburbs at 9am. We bounced down the side of Illinois, getting nickel and dimed at the tolls the whole way. Then came the drive through Iowa. Which…was not as flat and straight as I had been led to believe. It was somewhat hilly, with ample curves. (I would love for someone to take that sentence out of context.) Which isn’t to say that it wasn’t, you know, somewhat unexciting. It was just not as flat and straight as I had thought. We lunched at a restaurant called the Seven Villages near the Amana Colonies…sadly, we did not have time to call my friend Katie’s parents so we could get a full tour of the area. But the grilled cheese sandwich on fresh German bread was a nice enough sampler. And I even squeezed in a very positive and enjoyable conversation with a professor out at USC…hopefully good things come out of that.

Then it was back on the road, and out across the rest of Iowa and into Nebraska. And Nebraska…is pretty flat and straight. Some might say that’s boring. But when you’re driving for 11 hours for the second time in three days, any opportunity you have to throw the car on cruise control without having to worry about elevation changes or windy roadways is very, very welcome. After driving into a gorgeous sunset across the Midwest sky, we pulled off here in Lexington, checked into our hotel, and enjoyed a decent-enough meal at a nearby greasy spoon called Kirk’s Nebraskaland Restaurant. It was here, when the hostess offered us coffee upon sitting down, when I thought, “No…why would I want coffee? We’ve been driving forever, and we have to drive more tomorrow…we need to sleep. Don’t you already know that?”…only then did I realize that there were a whole host of people who did not arrive in this part of the world only because they were driving through to somewhere else. A lot of the people in Kirk’s are there because they live nearby. Which isn’t a bad thing or anything…I just think my ability to recognize other people has been blunted by my travels.

Baseball Rivalry Note 1: We had our second demonstrative reaction to my Red Sox/Jimmy Fund license plates. Oddly enough in Nebraska. Some dudes drove by, and the front seat passenger waved his Yankee hat at the car. Lisa just waved back. The situation might have been worse, but I was dozing in the front seat. Which also explains how Britney Spears’ greatest hits made its way into the iPod playlist. (The first one was in New York state, and it was some jerky little 8 year old kid riding in his daddy’s obnoxious Hummer. So that all made perfect sense.)

Baseball Rivalry Note 2: I get it that people think that Cubs/Cards is as bad/great a rivalry as Sox/Yanks. But I think the big difference lies in the guy we saw outside Wrigley, selling “Friends don’t let friends be Cub fans” shirts in bright Cardinal red…while he himself wore a White Sox hat. There’s no outside force getting involved in the Red Sox and Yankees. And the fanbase of those two teams wouldn’t tolerate such shenanigans outside their home ballpark. Things are just different, I guess.

Weather: on Sunday, it was absolutely perfect. Mid-70s, and we could drive with the windows cracked and the AC off. Today was almost as good, although it got a little warmer. Starting soon, though, we start to enter the serious stuff…the temperatures of 90s and 100s are right around the corner. And by right around the corner, I mean in the next third of the country.

Gas price: we stayed pretty consistently in the $3.69-$3.79 range. We drove by some signs for $3.49, but of course didn’t need gas then. Bah.

Music listened to, Sunday: George Harrison – All Things Must Pass (highlights – I don’t have the whole album, sadly); an R.E.M. mix thrown together in an On The Go playlist; The Cars – Greatest Hits; a Jackson 5/Michael Jackson sampler (in honor of Gary, IN); Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4″; Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago”; The Blues Brothers – Definitive Collection (highlights again); an Elliott Smith mix and Pinback’s “Loro” (for the late-night drive out to the suburbs).

Music listened to, Monday: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle; Elvis – 30 #1 Hits; Bob Dylan sampler; Best Of Motown, Vol. 1; a Weezer sampler; “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John; Britney Spears – Greatest Hits (again, can you tell Lisa took over the music here?); two P.T.-for-L.T. mixes (Like A Neon Choir and These Eyes So Clear) to close out the day.

I had really wanted to do at least one full classic album per day. We dropped the ball on that and have leaned more towards mixes, samplers and greatest hits albums. Judge us if you want – we’re doing what we can here.

License plates: the Sunday additions are as follows: WI MN NE WV GA and Jalisco (plus Tennessee and Utah on trucks). And today we added in CO KS UT WA SC NC ID SD AR. Which brings our three day total up to 42 states, plus 3 extra ones if we’re counting trucks (with Utah and South Dakota getting upgraded from “truck-only” to a car on successive days). Country wise, and including the trucks, we have 42 of the 51 US states (yeah, we’re counting D.C. in this count), plus two Canadian provinces and a Mexican state. Basically, we’ve broken through all reasonable expectations I could have had for this license plate game. Is there any way we could get all 50 U.S. states? Can it be done? It can’t be done. Or…can it?

OK, this has become very long. I know I’m missing a lot, and that Lisa would want to add in the fact that she saw Bambis, that we saw our first hitch-hiker, and that she thinks there’s this on tractor trailer truck from Oklahoma that keeps looping around in front of us when we’re driving. I’ll likely update this tomorrow before we check out to fill in the extra details that are slipping from my memory right now. But overall, the trip is going well…the driving has been manageable, the country-watching is still interesting, and we haven’t turned on each other. So far, so good. Tomorrow: Denver, and some time hanging out with Juliebeth and crew. Updates to come on Wednesday.

Oh, and there will be pictures added to these posts in the future. We haven’t transfered them from the camera to the computer. We’ll do that at some point…probably when hiding out from 107 degree weather somewhere in Utah.

edit: somehow I left off Wisconsin from the license plate counts…added that in and updated the numbers.

So 11 hours, 15 minutes and 661 miles later, the first leg of the trip is complete. We woke up almost on time at 7am and finished the getting-ready process. Which mainly involved cleaning up the apartment and then ourselves before loading up the car and leaving. Things I learned right before I left: the local 7-11 doesn’t cash out winning scratch tickets before 9am (”or later”), and the local Citizens Bank no longer accepts deposits for other institutions. Both of those things would have been better to know before schlepping out to run my final errands at quarter of 8 in the morning. At least I got a chance to see my parents again before heading out.

The day then consisted of driving. A lot of driving. A lot of driving in a car with a lot of crap in the trunk and the back seat, making it handle a little weirder than normal. (Let’s just say a ‘95 Subaru Legacy doesn’t love it when you load it down with extra weight and then ask it to brake…it shakes a little in frustration.) Lisa and I developed a good schedule of only driving for 2-2.5 hours, and then trading off. This led to neither of us getting too wiped out, and also kept our stops short and focused. By the end of the day, we had only lost 45 minutes for eating, filling the tank and urinating. We also only had to slow down once or twice, the most noteworthy time very early in the day when we saw a four car fender bender that featured a Caravan with its nose smooshed into itself. Not a great omen.

Highlights of the day: we think we saw a dead orangutan on the side of the road somewhere in upstate New York. I can’t guarantee it was, but I also can’t guarantee it wasn’t. Let’s just say it freaked us both out. Lisa also got the very satisfying experience of having a nozzle-y driver ride up our ass, only to then see the same driver pulled over by an Ohio state trooper about ten miles later. And we both enjoyed the fruits of our labors in going to see the eye doctor in the past week…having new, fresh glasses allowed us to take in more details and actually read highway signs (and license plates – more on that below).

Weather: quite nice for most of the day, though the afternoon sun beat through our windows and made us turn the AC up to 3. (Max is 4. The Once and Future XAH is a simple machine.) We then got really creepy lake-effect clouds that hovered over us in Cleveland, exploding into a torrential flash downpour for about six minutes.

Casualty: my cheap-ass CVS sunglasses somehow broke on my seatbelt. This also happened during the one 10 mile section of the journey where I was concerned that we might run out of gas and I couldn’t find an exit with a gas station. We’ll call that 15 minute period, “the dark times.”

Gas price high: $4.05 (MA Turnpike). Low: $3.59 (Ohio Welcome Center on Route 90). And, yes, the title sequence for the Sorpanos clearly shows 89 cent gas. Those were the days.

Music listened to: LT’s On The Go Mix (aka the songs from my iPod that, at one point, Lisa deemed worthy enough to put into an OTG playlist); The Beatles – Love; an extended greatest hits of Huey Lewis & The News; The Beach Boys – 20 Good Vibrations; an episode of the Uhh Yeah Dude podcast (which I enjoyed at spots but which led Lisa to declare she had lost her will to live); a bit of Hello Nasty by the Beastie Boys; The Who – Who’s Next; the first part of Paul McCartney’s Wingspan.

License plates: I know this isn’t phenomenally original, but I started noting what license plates we passed on our journey. I bet that we’d probably see 30 different states before our journey ended. (And, yes, we’re just going to include provinces and districts in with the term “states”…if you don’t like that, Canada and Washington, you can go to hell.) By the end of the day, we were sitting pretty at 27, with 3 conditional ones…conditional because some members of the car felt that tractor trailer trucks shouldn’t count as they always travel all over the place. So in the interest of domestic bliss, we’re keeping those parenthetically separate. The breakdown of the current states:

MA, NH, FL, MI, NY, NJ, VT, IA, TX, ON, IN, MD, OH, CT, RI, MO, PA, IL, DE, ME, AZ, KY, WY, CA, LA, WI and DC (plus OK, QC and SD)

What that boils down to: I think we’re going to have to up our goal to 35 at least, maybe even 40. It also means that the level of excitement I had every time I saw a new state’s plate just underscores that I’m incredibly lame, and that Lisa has a long way to go before she’s survived this trip.

Off to sleep now. We probably won’t have a chance to get on the internet tomorrow because we’ll be too busy enjoying Chicago. But you should hear from me again when we’re in Nebraska. Roll on, America…roll on.

edit: definitely forgot to mention that after all that driving, we pulled into our hotel in Elyria and had both good and weird experiences. The good was finding out that a replica of the Everett shopping plaza exists here in Ohio, so we could have a meal at the Texas Roadhouse and then buy some needed/forgotten supplies at Target. (Thank you, suburban sprawl.) The weird was the 40-something couple in the red Mustang parked next to us in the hotel lot who invited us into their room to join them in their hot tub. We followed Lisa’s mom’s advice and chose to not make friends with any strangers.

I know things have been pretty quiet around here. It’s been so quiet, we even dropped the ball on celebrating the site’s three year birthday a couple weeks back. Tragic. In case you were wondering what we were up to, here is a brief synopsis:

-jz has continued his scientific endeavors, conquering the worlds of biology, genetics, organic chemistry and organic chemistry II (the sequel). When last heard from, he was preparing to leave the continent and the hemisphere. Basically, he’s too busy to invest as much time as he wants into World of Warcraft and Apple products…so he doesn’t feel the need to post much.

-ptm spent a lot of time and effort sending in applications to creative writing programs, and an almost equal amount of time and effort sorting through rejection letters. Thankfully some letters had good news, and he is currently prepping to transplant himself across the country to sunny Los Angeles to begin the Master of Professional Writing program at USC. And by “currently prepping,” he means that his bags are packed right behind him, and as soon as this post is done he is packing up the computer, going to bed, waking up and hitting the road. While this whole California thing was falling into place, he also left his job, had a surprise party thrown for him, got engaged to Lisa, and began referring to himself in the third person. It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

All that being said, we’re* looking to reboot the site and rededicate it to some new content. I’m going to use the magic of motels-with-high-speed-internet to document the drive out to L.A. And then I’ll be tracking my attempts to acclimate myself to the left coast, and all the fun stuff going on in the MPW program. I’ll also try to finish the Lester post, the party recap and the movie reviews that I’ve promised people I’d do.

So…lots of fun stuff to come. Or maybe it’ll be another four weeks before anything is posted, and it’ll just be a couple of links with some mediocre one liners attached. You know, either/or.

*when I say “we,” I’m really just speaking for me. I think jz is too preoccupied and too international traveling to contribute much. We’ll keep poking his blogging corpse with a virtual stick to see if he’ll twitch…but don’t hold your breath.