Giants of Nature

We pulled across the boarder of California early Sunday evening. It wasn't too late, but the giant effing trees blocked out all remaining traces of the sun. I had hoped to make it into town that night to officially see the Pacific Ocean, but we were just too pooped.

Our trip had unfortunately been marred by our first car problem. Somewhere outside of Crater Lake our turn signals had stopped working. No forewarning, just...stopped. We pulled over at a rest stop and tried to find broken fuses or anything that could cause it but couldn't solve the problem. Two girls from New Jersey staring at a car with it's hood open is like a peacock opening it's feathers for testosterone fueled men. A car pulled up next to us and a man and his...male companion (brother? friend?) practically flew out of the car to help while their female companions stood a fair distance away and offered little to no help other than random "so hows your trip been" questions. They were stumped, however, and we were sent on ourr way. They seemed a bit bummed that they couldn't help us, though, which made me a little bummed.

After gawking at Crater Lake we decided to give the car fixing another try. Again, like moths to a flame we had no sooner started pulled out the fuse box when a car careened into the spot next to us (nearly killing me) and a man jumped out mumbling how he had left his tool box at home. He sent his one eyed wife to grab his flashlight (it was broad daylight) and he set to work pulling fuses out of our car. Great. This is really going to help. His wife went to go stare at Crater Lake for awhile before coming back to bring the general mood of life down.

One Eyed Woman: This your first time at Crater Lake?

Me: Yea! It's gorgeous!

OEW: Not with all this smoke.

Me: Well, even with the smoke it looks great.

OEW: No. No it doesn't. You really missed out on something special.

Me: Um...I'll...have to come back...

After she finished bringing the mood down her husband declared our car broken and gave us a crash course on using bike signals in lieu of our turn signals. In his words "They don't lik'em, but dere legal!"

Long story short, our drive had been long, stress inducing, and Chiz nearly blew us both away when she opened the window to signal a right turn. We got to our cabin and had no desire to return to the road even for 2 miles. The Pacific Ocean would have to wait until tomorrow.

The next morning we awoke and took our time getting started. This is becoming a recurring theme, we are not early go getters. Chiz had to pick something up at Wal-Mart, so we made that our first stop. This was a friendly Wal-Mart where everyone was smiling and gave you a knowing look of "don't steal anything, we don't get many customers and we will remember you". This is crucial information for later.

Also at Wal-Mart there was a homeless man with two dogs. This is a key difference between the East and the West. There are a lot of homeless people in the West. Everywhere. You expect them in cities...but not at Wal-Marts in tourist towns. The amount of hitchhikers we passed on the road was unimaginable, we must have picked up at least 6 of them (jusssst kidding). It seems that our idea of heading West once unemployed is not an original one, and could lead to a significant lifestyle change if we're not careful.

After picking up what we needed at Wal-Mart we continued down route 101 to see the tall trees. Redwood National (and State) Park was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much other than some...really tall trees, but the minute you get into the park there is a sense of peace and calm that just descends on you. Sound and light disappear and you get lost in the sea of giants. It's incredibly disturbing if you stop and think about it. You're out there alone and no one is around to hear you scream....but in the moment it's glorious. Ferns blanket the floor while fallen redwoods decompose providing a home for new growth. That's another disturbing part of the forrest, there are a lot of fallen trees. Meaning that these trees fall frequently. These trees are HUGE...and if one fell on you....and no ones around to hear you scream...just don't think about it. It's gorgeous.

As we left the park we saw a sign for the "Tour Thru Tree" aka the tree you can drive though. Our sole reason for coming to Redwoods National Forrest, we wanted to drive through a tree. I had assumed that this would be part of the National Park, but upon further review I see that the idea of the National Park cutting a giant hole in a tree doesn't compute. So I paid the nice old lady 4 dollars for the right to drive my car through a giant tree that she happened to have on her property. Lucky bastard. As we pulled up she smiled and said "looks like you girls are going on a picnic!" We were so thrown off by the understatement of the year that we nodded and said "yea, we....are...sort of..."

I felt a little bad about falling for a tourist trap but as soon as I pulled Rigby through the tree I realized "hey, it's not everyday you get to drive through a tree". So Ch'nel went through, then we walked though, then we took pictures under it, then we took pictures of another couple. We were getting our four dollars worth if it was the last thing we did. As we waited for another car to pull through we started talking to a couple who was also waiting.

Man: So you're from New Jersey?

Me: Yep!

Man: Awesome...we're from Indiana!

Me: Of course you are.

Those Indianians are out and about!

When we had exhausted our drive through tree options we decided we were hungry. We drove back into town and began exploring their harbor area for lunch options. We saw a sign for a place called "Beacon Burger" and decided it sounded fantastic. After numerous false alarms pulling into docks and federal areas we managed to find the burger shack. We pulled up and noticed the three people out front were clearly talking about us and our Jersey status. We hopped out of the car and the eldest man immediately began recounting his glory days down in Wildwood for us.

Old Man: Man, back in the twenties there was no better place to be

Me: HOW OLD ARE YOU! (ok, I thought this, but I did nearly shout it out)

He kept us captive for a good 15 minutes, detailing everything we needed to see as well as pulling out pictures of his rose garden to show us. We were finally relieved to go eat lunch when he escorted us in to get our burgers. While they were just burgers and fries there was something satisfying about eating them along the Pacific Coast. We had made it to the West Coast. If we failed from here on out we would totally be able to cover it up. If we had to return home early we could still say "one time I drove across the country". We had made it across the country and we were going to have a subpar burger to celebrate.

We headed back to the campground by way of Wal-Mart so that Ch'nel could pick something else up...or something. On our way out the greeter saw us, laughed and said "You girls again! Wow you come here a lot". Yikes, never good to be a regular at Wal-Mart.

Back at the campground we relaxed for awhile...which turned into even longer. Before we knew it night had fallen and we didn't have anything for dinner....so back to Wal-Mart we went! We grabbed some pasta for making mac and cheese then came back to feast. And feast we did not. The pasta was undercooked, our cheese to pasta ratio was all off and in the end we went to bed hungry. It was sad.

The Redwoods are incredibly peaceful during the day, but incredibly terrifying at night. Darkness comes fast and our campground prided itself on the space that it put in between it's cabins. So we were alone in the forest in the darkness...in silence. I also had mistakenly Wikipedia'd Crescent City and found out that it was home to California's SuperMax prison. Never Wikipedia the town you're in while you're still in the town, you'll find out things you don't want to know. My love for the Redwoods died at night when it was replaced with pure terror. Once we were safely back in our cabin I immediately went to sleep, despite the fact that it was 8 at night, just so that the morning would come faster.

For all the fear that the night brought, the peaceful mornings of making oatmeal and drinking tea out on our picnic table negated it all. The sun peaked through the thick canopy and my love for the Redwoods came flooding back. Next time I come...I just won't camp.

We checked out of our campground then hit the road, stopping of course at Wal-Mart so that Chiz could exchange the Miley Cyrus t-shirt she had bought the day before. While she did that I wandered over to the food section to get some granola bars....however when Chiz came to find me I was wandering around with packages of cookies, candy and peanut butter crackers as well. Wal-Mart is just a bad place to be when you're about to embark on a 5 hour car ride. Everything seems delicious.

Before leaving the Redwoods we stopped at the Trees of Mystery at the suggestion of one of the people we met at Beacon Buger. Trees of Mystery was clearly a tourist trap, but a fantastic one. The parking lot has a giant statue of Paul Bunyon that waves and yells things at you. From there you enter the park and following a twisting series of trails past a bunch of funky looking redwoods, including my favorite which had 12 additional redwoods growing out of it's branches. Very cool.

The trail continues along past the Cathedral Tree, a tree with 9 trees growing out of a single stump creating an alter of sorts. From there you head up another trail to the "Sky Trail" aka a bunch of ski gondolas that go up into the tops of the trees. See previous entry for my feeling on ski lifts, but through some will of God I managed to get myself in one and up into the trees we went. In between shaking and willing the gondola to get to the top I managed to open my eyes to glorious views of the ocean and trees. We finally reached the top and gazed out across the landscape. I am truly in love with Redwoods National Park. Most underrated national park.

We had to get back in the gondolas, much to my dismay, in order to get back down to the trail. Going down was easier than coming up and I was able to enjoy the view a little more. The trail finished through the Paul Bunyon history exhibit or something, as suddenly the trail was surrounded by giant wood carvings explaining the story of Paul Bunyon. I really want to take up wood carving now.

Unfortunately we couldn't stay in the Trees of Mystery forever and had to get back on the road to San Francisco. We bade goodbye to the Trees of Mystery and carried on down Route 101. Here we encountered tiny towns who's only source of income appears to be carving bears and Disney characters out of tree stumps. The closer we got to San Francisco the more traffic we encountered. It was here that we realized just how long we've been out in the wilderness. At no point in the past week and a half had we been on the road with more than 5 cars at a time. Suddenly we're plunged into rush hour traffic in the Bay Area. We were a little shaken and out of our element but we managed to make it to my friend Amber's house where there was macaroni and cheese and a giant salad (and beer) waiting on the table for us. A post-dinner viewing of Touched By An Angel capped off our first night in the San Francisco area, which we will cover tomorrow when I'm not ready to pass out.

Pictures will come tomorrow...also when I'm not ready to pass out.

Loving the Northwest

Idaho provided an extremely welcome surprise. Boise, intended as a simple sleeping point, was lovely. It was clean, the people were friendly and we were provided with much needed reemergence into society after hanging in the wilderness for what seemed like forever. After a fantastic sleep we woke up to a brilliant breakfast buffet (hey now, unintentional alliteration! +5 points) in the "hospitality room" of our $50 hotel. 

At any other place you would be skeptical of the breakfast buffet at a cheap hotel, not in Boise! They take this stuff seriously. A wide array of cereal, bread items, waffles and biscuits with gravy were spread out in front of us. Ch'nel and I sat down and began making our way through. It had been awhile since we had eaten and we didn't know when the chance to eat would come again. 

We spent a good hour and change there until Linda, the breakfast woman, kindly kicked us out. But we weren't going peacefully. I distracted Linda while Ch'nel ran to grab our t-shirts so that she could sign them. Linda was confused as to why her subtle hints such as taking away the food and closing the door weren't getting me to go, but was overjoyed to be invited to sign our road trip t-shirt. Not only did she sign our shirt but regaled us with tales of her son in New York and his adventures with Bette Middler and her backup singer. Apparently they're all best friends. Linda's not too pleased with this, however, that Bette has a bit of a mouth on her if you know what I mean. We nodded and assured Linda that we did in fact know what she meant. 

We went back to our room to pack up and instead lay around watching tv for awhile. We were comfortable and had no intentions of moving. Realizing that we had a 12 noon check out time we raced to the front desk at 11:57. After checking out we grabbed all the free popcorn, fruit and cookies that the bags we had brought in our pockets could carry before hitting the road for Bend, OR. Let me just take this moment to highly recommend the Shilo Hotel chain if you're ever in the west. Maybe this was an anomaly, but this hotel was fantastic.

The ride through Oregon was long but enjoyable. Like Idaho, the scenery threatened to be boring but changed just often enough to keep you interested. We spent the first two hours following a school bus where crazy things kept happening. Kids were jumping from seat to seat, lying on the floor and at one point we managed to convince ourselves that one of them had a crack pipe. When they pulled over for gas we pulled over as well because we had to find out what kind of juvenile delinquents were on that bus. The answer? A high school girls volleyball team. Hm, unexpected. 

We carried on to Bend where we were going to stay with my cousin, Diane. As we got closer and closer to the city there were no signs of development. We wondered if maybe Diane actually lived in a tent in the desert. I had no idea. The desert continued right up until the city line where gradually houses began to spring up. We found Diane's house, and with that Diane. She welcomed us in and after catching up we settled in for an incredible meal of bbq chicken and vegetables. So many vegetables. I was in heaven, a real meal with real vegetables. So satisfying. 

During dinner we figured out what we should do the next day. Diane is really into outdoor activities like biking and hiking and we were anxious to do anything that didn't involve a car so it was quickly determined that we should go hiking. Diane asked us if we were up to an 8 mile hike because she knew of a fantastic one. Feeling on top of the world due to my full stomach and the newly replenished iron in my blood and I agreed that that sounded like a perfect distance. So we cleaned up and watched some Planet Earth before going to bed to rest up for our hike. 

We arose the next morning and began getting ready for my hike. I had to change once I put on my clothes and realized that every piece of my outfit, hat and backpack included, advertised Princeton. Damn them and their comfortable clothes. We set off for the trail, getting a quick tour of Bend along the way. 

Bend is a cool little city in that at no point do you actually feel like you're in a city. Nor do you feel like you're in a small town. It has a very distinct identity that I don't think can be replicated anywhere else. It's very comfortable with all of it's chain stores on the outskirts of town so the downtown area really accentuates the towns identity. 

At the same time I couldn't help but think of that Simpson's episode where Homer gets the job at Globex and moves to that perfect town where everyone bikes everywhere and gets along swimmingly. Then at the end of the episode you discover that the head of Globex is actually some evil mastermind? Yea, you all know the one I'm talking about. There were plenty of bikes in Bend and on Saturday evening everyone was walking around in shirts that said "I Love Bend". The houses on the West side looked right out of The Sims and the replacement of traffic lights with traffic circles made everything run a little too smoothly for comfort. There is definitely an evil mastermind living somewhere in that town. 

Back to our hike. We reached the trailhead and set off towards the mountains. I was blown away by the beauty on this trail. Mountains with small traces of snow rose up all around us while crystal, and I mean crystal, clear water raced along the side of the trail. I didn't even notice the first two miles or so. Gradually the trail began to climb higher and higher, and I began kicking myself for agreeing to an 8 mile hike. Who the hell do I think I am? I've just spent two weeks sitting in a car for most of the day. I'm lucky my legs haven't atrophied yet. But I soldiered on, this place was beautiful and I wanted to see all of it. 

We made it to our destination of Green Lakes, in between South Sister and Broken Top Mountains. The view was stunning. There aren't any superfluous adjectives to describe it, it was awesome. We sat along the banks of the lake and ate our delicious turkey sandwiches on bread that Diane had baked the night before while staring in silence at the lake. With our energy replenished we broke out the cameras and began taking group shots, including the obligatory jumping shots. I can't jump. Do I look like I can jump? I can't. I always look like a fool in these photos...and today was no exception. 

When I had been made enough of a fool we headed back down the four mile trail to complete the eight miles. Going downhill, while not as strenuous, requires more skill and attention. Now that I had to be attentive to every step so that I didn't go tumbling down a steep slope I was also more attentive to my legs starting to ache. I didn't have any sort of time telling device on me so I had no idea how long we had been out there nor how long I expected us to take to get back. I never reached that point where I was struggling, however. I surprised myself. 8 miles uphill sounds like so much when you're used to...no miles on flat land. But when you're interested the distance just flies by. In no time we reached the long bridge to get us back to the parking lot. As I stepped up onto the bridge I felt the effects of 8 miles and decided that maybe I wasn't as prepared to become a hiker as I thought I was. 

We got back into the car and Diane asked us if we wanted to go up to the top of Mt. Batchelor next. Ch'nel and I were hesitant until Diane told us that we wouldn't have to hike it, just take the ski lift. I was still hesitant, ski lifts are one of my biggest fears, but fresh off of standing in a glass box hanging off of the Sears Tower I decided "screw it" and eagerly agreed. Luckily when we got there it was closed and I wouldn't have to face another one of my fears just yet. That's probably for the better. 

We returned to Diane's house to rest for a bit before popping back up and heading back into town. There we went to Bend Roots, a music festival at one of the traffic circles. I must say, I hate traffic circles. Hate them and all that they stand for. But Bend has really embraced them and uses them for a variety of purposes besides traffic flow, including art display and music festivals. I almost warmed up to traffic circles during this trip. Diane had warned us that she is a pretty big deal in Bend (my words, not hers) and we had taken no more than one bite of our dinner when people began to flow over to greet her. I felt popular just eating dinner with her.

The bands were fantastic! One used a harmonica and a didgeridoo, the other was a great funk-esque band and the final one had a girl drummer who was out of control. To use a phrase that the kids are using, disgusting. 

You couldn't help but notice the abundance of white people in Bend, especially when a black man trying to sell his book of poetry took Ch'nel's hand and said "sister, we don't see too many of our kind around here". Awkward for everyone. On the plus side it led itself to a variety of "Holy shit, are you black? I never knew" jokes for the rest of the night. 

On the whole, however, Ch'nel and I fell in love with Bend, OR. Leaving the next day was hard. We took our time getting out of Oregon, stopping at Crater Lake National Park along the way. The lake was covered with smoke from a nearby forest fire but still stunningly gorgeous. Crater Lake was created from a collapsed volcano so what you now see is a giant lake in the middle of a mountain with the cone of the volcano sticking up in the middle. Even with the layer of smoke the water was still brilliantly blue. It reflected the sky so perfectly that when you looked down you felt like you were falling into the sky. If you let yourself get lost in the water you could convince yourself that you were floating somewhere between sky and ground with no idea which way was up. Very trippy, very awesome. 

We're now in California at Redwoods National Park. I will do a full update on this tomorrow but I'll just say it hasn't let us down. The forest is incredibly peaceful and you're instantly relaxed the moment you walk in. Also I drove my car through a tree today. Yes, through a tree. Think about that one for awhile. 

Ch'nel and I after our delicious sandwiches


The city of Bend
Crater Lake

Quick Photo Post

A full post on Bend, OR to come later but here are some great pictures from our hike through the mountains. 

The streams were crystal clear
Broken Top (I think) mountain

Ch'nel cartwheels across a log bridge 
Us with my cousin Diane
I am physically incapable of doing jumping pictures

Diane, a fantastic photographer, gets credit for the bottom 4 pictures

Ungrateful Little....

FINE! You want pictures of the bison crossing, fine, here they are. They were only on Ch'nel's camera so I just had to go download all 500 photos on her camera onto my camera just to find the bison photos. Jeez. 

HERE! HAVE A VIDEO TOO!

Yellowstone: The Worlds Most Exhausting National Park

Our first day in Yellowstone got off to a slow start. We slept in, had a nice breakfast of oatmeal, and spent a good part of the morning hanging out at our picnic table reading and otherwise doing nothing. After awhile we realized that we should probably head into the park. Which we did right after checking our e-mail and lying around for a little while more. 

The very perky desk worker eagerly directed us to the park and outlined exactly what we needed to see, adding "of course there's Old Faithful...which...you have to see...I guess". Armed with a list of necessary stopping points we high tailed it to the park. 

We entered and immediately saw a large group of cars pulled over. The general rule of thumb with Yellowstone is if you see a group of cars pulled over, you pull over. Don't ask questions, just pull over. There is probably something cool there. We pulled over and saw a bunch of people with supersized cameras pointing and gasping with excitement. We ran over and scanned the land for the grizzly bear or moose that they must have seen. After inching over to a group we managed to hear that we were actually looking at a bald eagle. Still cool, but not a grizzly bear. 

We hopped back in the car and drove some more, stopping every few hundred yards or so to take pictures. While Yellowstone was beautiful, we were realizing that this was going to be our entire time in the park. Drive, drive, drive, pull over suddenly when we see something awesome thus putting our lives in jeopardy, drive, drive, drive, take picture, drive, stop. Turn around. Drive, drive, drive back home down the same road we came in on. I have a feeling this wouldn't be a problem if we hadn't spent our entire trip driving. 

We made it to Old Faithful and pulled in roughly 10 minutes before it was due to go off. Excellent timing. We walked up and waited...and waited...and waited. The family in front of us was a comedy dream team and kept us laughing the entire time with jokes about it's delay. Just when I was about to blame global warming and give up on Old Faithful it went off. It was cool. You don't see that everyday. 

Even cooler was when we went into the Old Faithful Inn to use their restrooms. Hands down one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. It looks fairly normal from the outside, rustic, comfortable, but walk inside and it's a five story maze of balconies made out of logs. I could have stood in that lobby for hours just gazing up at the different stories. 

But we had to continue! Onward we drove, through lakes and geysers and into thick forests of trees. And in these trees we stayed. We drove on and on through the non changing forest before deciding that we had gone as far as we could go for the day and turning back. We still had a two hour drive ahead of us to get out, so we really couldn't go much further without being stuck in the park after dark. 

We were almost out of the park when we hit a traffic jam. A heard of bison was trying to cross the road and everyone had stopped their cars to take pictures. We started moving again when two more tried to cross in front of our car. We stopped and watched until we heard a woman behind us frantically shouting "Sir! You might want to get back in your car. Sir!" We looked back to see another bison walking alongside our car. It stopped at the drivers side window and looked in. It thankfully decided to not gore our car and turned in front of us to cross over to the other side. Unnerving....but awesome. 

We made it out of the park and returned home to rest up in order to try again the next day. 

The next day we woke up earlier, determined to get on the road. We got off to a rough start when we discovered we were out of kerosene and thus unable to make our oatmeal. Not ok. So we settled for dry Cheerios for breakfast. We got on the road and went back into the park. Determined to drive further than we had before we agreed that we would only stop for animals. A minute into the park we discovered a huge group of people pulled over. We pulled over and found...another bald eagle. Don't get me wrong, bald eagles are awesome, I love America, but I want a grizzly bear. 

Let's go further! We drove and drove and drove and made it to the upper and lower falls. We began to walk along the lower falls path before realizing that in order to walk down to the lower falls we would then have to walk back up...and we weren't willing to make that commitment. So we walked along the upper falls path to go and see the upper falls. Unfortunately halfway there the trail just...ended. So we had to walk back. No worries, it was still a very pretty walk. 

We got back on the road and made it to the KOA Desk Attendant recommended Canyon Village...which turned out to be a gift shop. This is ok, however, because we love gift shops. We bought a couple gifts and more importantly some ice cream. I really love ice cream and it always tastes twice as good on vacation. 

It was still early so we kept on trucking. Onward we went until we reached Mammoth/Hot Springs at the northern edge of the park. By this point I was experiencing a certain stabbing pain in my body that a majority of my blog readers can probably identify with. The urge to pass out and vomit was taking me over and all I could think about was getting back to the cabin....which was at least 3 hours away. Luckily Mammoth also had a gift shop and this gift shop sold drugs. I confirmed with Ch'nel that she was able to drive for the rest of the day and bought myself some super strong Advil...the kind that knocks you out (why they were selling this is Yellowstone I have no idea, but I am infinitely thankful)

The next hour can be best described as blissful. Ch'nel's iPod music played softly in the background and the gorgeous scenery of Yellowstone passed me by. A warm breeze wafted through the car and I didn't have a care in the world. While I don't encourage recreational drug use, I assure you that being in pain is not necessarily a trip killer when in Yellowstone. 

We stopped at the petrified tree and I managed to pull myself out of my stupor to go walk up to it to take a better look. Petrified wood is caused by volcanic flows where the silica blocks the pores of the tree and prevents it from rotting and giving it the appearance of stone (OMP, am I right here?). It was cool. 

This woke me up and I was rather coherent for the next part of the trip which took us to various other gorgeous locations of the park. By the time we reached Tower Falls I was wide awake. I was feeling good and nothing was going to get me down. After snapping some pictures of the falls we got back in the car and continued driving. Next thing I know we were at a supermarket back in West Yellowstone. Apparently the advil was time released and sent me into a royal coma after about an hour and a half. Good to know for the future. 

Today we again slept in before packing up the car and heading out for our next destination. Our next main destination is Bend, OR, but that was much too far of a drive for us to do in one day. As a result we are currently in Boise, ID. On our way to Boise we stopped at Shoshone Falls, as we heard it was the "Niagara of the West". The road there was a bit sketchy and when we arrived at the entrance shack we told the attendant that thanks, but we're going to just go back to the interstate instead. The attendant was having none of that and told us that he was going to wave the fee and that we would be his "guests". Under no circumstances were we to turn around, we had to see the falls. Well who can argue with that? 

The falls were at their driest and thus not as impressive as they usually are, but they were still pretty cool. The canyon that they drained into was also impressive and Ch'nel said it best when she felt like she wasn't in America anymore but rather Europe. It was really something different. 

We went back up to the shack and told the man thank you. We asked him to sign our road trip t-shirts and got into a discussion with him and his friend on a bicycle about our trip. They were full of ideas and tips for everywhere else we're going and we left feeling like maybe we should have just pitched a tent at Shoshone Falls and stayed there for awhile. It was fantastic. 

But instead we soldiered on and made it to Boise. To our surprise Boise is...not ugly. It's without a doubt the most civilization we've seen since Minneapolis. They even have a PF Changs! Our hotel is great! They have free cookies, coffee and fruit but every water bottle is $1.50 as the desk clerk made a point to mention. 

My friend had given me an Applebees gift card before I left and we decided to use it to have our first full dinner of the trip. Rather than the hot dogs or soup that we had become used to while camping we enjoyed meat, potatoes and vegetables. It was fantastic. Everyone at Applebees was just a little off. The hostess was wandering out the door when she saw us and sat us at the bar...when all of the dining tables were open. Our waitress spoke so softly and seemed terrified by our drink orders of a diet coke and ginger ale. Even the manager who came over to give us our check seemed uneasy about whether or not he was doing the right thing. It was like this Applebees was a training Applebees for new workers where everyone was super formal but hesitant. It was very funny. 

Now we're relaxing back at the hotel, watching tv and enjoying real beds. Tomorrow it's on to Bend, OR for a few days. I guess that technically counts as reaching the West Coast as it's a West Coast state but we hopefully will officially hit the West Coast when we go to Crescent City, CA on Sunday. What a fun and exciting time. 

Tower Falls
Shoshone Falls, ID
Shoshone Falls, ID
From April-June this looks like Niagara Falls

On the Road Again

Another long journey across a state. This time it was a surprise and we went across Montana! We assumed we would be crossing Wyoming to get to Yellowstone National Park but in reality we were only there for a small sliver. Our campsite is actually in West Yellowstone, MT so the GPS took us up into Montana on I-90. 

Driving through Montana was a lot cooler than South Dakota. The scenery changed fairly frequently with twisting roads through the increasingly large moutain-esque rock formations (do they count as mountains yet? They would in NJ, that's for certain). Hands down highlight of the trip came when we were still in Wyoming and we stopped at a rest area. There we saw another car from NJ, this got us excited. We came out at the same time as them and Chiz put up a valiant effort to be their friend.

Chiz: Hey! Are you guys from New Jersey?

NJ Hipsters: *nod* yea...

Chiz: Cool! Us too!

*silence*

Chiz: We're driving cross country!

NJ Hipsters: Yea...same....

Chiz:......Well have a good trip!

NJ Hipsters: *silence*

With all this midwestern hospitality we've experienced lately I've forgotten how douchey East Coasters can be. Their bored indifference made me a bit homesick. 

Back on the road poor Ch'nel couldn't shake what just happened. All she wanted was a new friend to sign her t-shirt and she was shot down in royal fashion. At least she tried, I just stood in the back and giggled. So we meandered along on our merry way watching the hours float on by. 

At one point we reached a stretch of 10 miles where the road lines had been freshly painted. Signs posted asked drivers to please use only the right lane and stay within the lines. It was as if everyone took a swig of liquor upon reading that sign because everyone in front of me began to swerve back and forth as they focused on driving a straight road. One poor soul was clearly so overwhelmed at the idea that he was just driving along the freshly painted sideline of the road, spewing paint powder everywhere. If they hadn't asked everyone to stay within the lines they would have been fine, but instead they just caused a panic. A hilarious panic, but a panic nonetheless.

In Bozeman, MT we exited I-90 and began to drive along Route 191. This twisting scenic road was marred by the dozens of small white crosses everywhere. Appearing in groups I can only assume these crosses represent deaths of travelers along this road. While I like to assume these deaths were drunk people speeding down the road in the middle of the night while doing a line of cocaine...I know that's not the case. It was a sobering reminder of just how dangerous the driving on these roads is and left me a little shaken. 

We continued along the road for what seemed like an eternity as we were so hungry. We pulled into our campground about an hour later and went to go register. There a nice man was stocking groceries and at the same time gave the most thorough registration and overview that I have ever seen. We were both impressed and are thinking of recruiting him to work at the office next summer. We drove over to our cabin site and started setting up. Again I wandered around aimlessly until Ch'nel fixed me dinner (beef stew) then set up my bed to relax. 

The bathroom at the campground is rather far away and we've been warned to watch out for bears. Chiz and I just drove over there to get ready for bed and I've stopped drinking liquids. Let's hope my plan works, otherwise we're going to have an issue in the middle of the night. 

We're going to be in Yellowstone for the next couple of days. This will be nice as it will give up a bit of a rest and a chance to slow down our exploration pace rather than trying to fit it all into one day. No pictures today as the road is boring.

*NOTE*

Apologies to Dudley, Suzette, Stacey and Cindy. We saw signs with your names on them but we weren't quick enough with the camera/there were cars behind us and we couldn't slow down to take pictures of them. This is especially sad because we know you are four of the blogs most loyal readers. I will now describe each of your signs:

Dudley: You had a creek named after you. It was near Yellowstone and I'm sure it was glorious. 

Suzette: You had a breakfast restaurant of sorts. It was in Minnesota. It was pink and adorable. 

Stacey: You had a BBQ joint. We only saw the sign. It was near Bozeman, MT

Cindy: You had a restaurant called Cindy's Kitchen. It sounds delicious. 

BLOG HOMEWORK! 

You know those come ons that places have that if you get a friend to buy a membership both of you get a gift? We're doing that. If you tell one friend about this blog and that friend becomes a reader I will name a mountain after you Mt. Rushmore style. So everyone go tell one friend about this blog. 

We're From Indiana!

We made it to South Dakota! Side note: how come no one told me that the previous first sentence was...not a sentence? Thanks guys. Fixed now. That was a feat. The drive through the rest of Minnesota and all of South Dakota was painful. Stunningly so. Flat farmland everywhere. The one shining moment came when we crossed the Missouri River. As I descended down the suddenly hilly highway I was confronted with the most incredibly dazzling blue body of water I've ever seen in the continental US. Behind it green hills rolled lazily off into the horizon. Unfortunately this lasted about 10 miles then it was back to flat farmland. 

We reached the Mt Rushmore area and tried to figure out where to spend the night. After much debate we settled on a KOA campground 9 miles from the monument. Ch'nel set up our tent in record time with absolutely no help from me. I sat on the bench trying not to vomit from the splitting headache I had as a result of the 10 hour car ride of death with no food. Note for future rides, wheat thins and rice cakes does not a lunch make. We went to the supermarket, grabbed some food, then Ch'nel continued to show off her camping expertise by making us a delicious meal of hot dogs and beans. We blew up our air mattresses and went to bed. Well, Ch'nel did. 

I have never been more cold in my life! I had on a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt and two sweat shirts, two layers of pants and two layers of socks. If it didn't involve taking off my two pairs of pants I probably would have added a second layer of underwear as well. The wind was whipping into our tent causing me to wake Ch'nel up in fright because I thought a bear was outside. She was less than pleased. Luckily we had crossed a time zone so even with my inability to sleep I had an extra hour once I did get to sleep. 

We woke up and sought out breakfast. We went into town where each store seems to serve a certain purpose. There are no choices. There is the breakfast place, the hardware place, the t-shirt place and the German food place (all mountain towns have German restaurants. It's a fact). We ate at the breakfast place, their food was completely forgettable. I hoped this wouldn't set the pace for the day. 

We hopped back into the car and drove to Mt Rushmore. The Rush did not disappoint, with Mother Nature providing beautiful blue skies as a backdrop to this titan of patriotism. Our sour moods immediately flew out the window and we began snapping pictures like none other. Marianna with Mt. Rushmore, Ch'nel with Mt Rushmore, both of us with Mt. Rushmore, alright now individual shots of each head, wait, take a picture of the New Jersey flag over there! As we were snapping pictures we engaged in a picture trade of sorts with a couple next to us. We took their picture, they took ours. We exchanged pleasantries and they asked where we were from.

Me: New Jersey

Man: Oh that's great! We're from Indiana!

Alright it doesn't exactly translate over the blogosphere but his intonation implied that Indiana and New Jersey were neighbors. We nodded and agreed that this was a crazy coincidence that we should run into each other. At this point we inched toward the staircase and made a beeline for the museum. Things were about to get awkward upstairs, we needed to remove ourselves. The museum was just a bunch of posters talking about why the presidents were awesome. I always like it when people feel the need to explain why Washington was awesome. We know. We all passed first grade. Teddy Roosevelt needs a little explaining, but we would find out his awesomeness in a few minutes.

We hopped on the park ranger guided tour and learned the entire history of the area and Mt Rushmore in 30 minutes. It was awesome. Did you know that Mt. Rushmore is named Mt Rushmore because some guy named Rushmore saw it and his buddy jokingly called it Mt Rushmore? Then years later he read about the sculpture project and saw that the name had stuck? Did you know that the Sioux Nation currently have a trust fund that they are trying to decide whether or not to accept that is worth over 900 million dollars? Did you know that the sculptor of Mt Rushmore nearly started a war between North Carolina and Georgia? Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt once wanted to send the navy to around the world to shoot their guns off in every port to show their strength but the government wouldn't give him the money? So he sent them anyway and when they ran out of food and fuel he told Congress that if they wanted their navy back they would have to finance their trip home? Yes! That is why Teddy Roosevelt is awesome. He held his own navy hostage. 

We explored the grounds of Mt Rushmore a little more then headed off for a scenic drive. The Black Hills (named for the ponderosa spruce trees that cover them) are gorgeous! The twisting and turning roads are slightly terrifying but totally worth it for the views. Large outcrops of rock pop up everywhere between the thick bunches of trees and deer and mountain goats scamper along the mountain faces. Well, we assume the mountain goats do. At one scenic overlook we stood next to a family and two senior women. The women were locals and were frantically pointing to mountain goats on the mountain in the distance. The family claimed they could see them, I think they were just being kind. As we walked back to our cars the father pointed at our license plate and yelled to his son "Hey! New Jersey! We've got a New Jersey!" That made me feel good. I love the license plate game. They got into the car in front of us and we saw that they were from Michigan. "Do you think we should introduce them to our friends from Indiana?" I asked Ch'nel. 

Further up the road we reached The Needles, tall thin rock formations. These were really awesome and were made more awesome by the professional climbers jumping between them. Unfortunately this was also where our camera batteries ran out of charge. We were tired and planning on returning to the campsite anyway so we figured we would charge them there.

The skies were starting to gray as we reached the campsite. The winds were whipping as hard as they had been the night before and Ch'nel couldn't even get the camp stove to light. I checked the weather and saw that it was going to be cold and rainy tonight. I started to get nervous thinking of how uncomfortable I had been the night before and tonight could only be worse. Ch'nel was worried as well and suggested that I go see how much it would cost to be upgraded to one of the tiny little cabins surrounding the site. I practically ran over there because I was so excited at the idea of an actual structure to protect me from the wind. Once there I did a little *metaphorical* dance when I heard that for the low price of 15 bucks I could have a roof tonight. Score. 

We secured our cabin just in time, as just as we got our tent down the rain began to fall. We moved our stuff down the road to a tiny cabin with a little porch out front, perfect for making the dinner that the wind wouldn't let us make down at the tent site. After a dinner of hot dogs we went back out to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was getting dark and starting to rain again but we were determined to see it. 

The Crazy Horse Memorial will one day be the worlds biggest sculpture. Emphasis on one day. It's been in the works for over 60 years and while they claim a lots been done...I beg to differ. Although I guess when you're turning an entire mountain into a sculpture time moves a bit differently. We watched the orientation video, which had to be one of my favorites ever. Occasionally they would just stop talking and cut to footage of rock being blasted off of the mountain. They really knew how to play to my attention span. We ventured out to the "viewing veranda" to snap a few pictures but by this point it was finger numbing cold and we quickly ran back inside. After viewing some of the sculptor's other works we discovered a display that allowed you to take a piece of blasted rock from the sculpture home with you. I'm not talking about pebbles, I'm talking cantaloupe sized pieces. I now have one. Awesome. 

We thought about going to see Mt Rushmore lit up but it was raining and the roads were slippery. It wasn't worth it. So we returned to our cozy cabin to relax and write postcards. The rain is pelting outside yet I am dry and warm. This is fantastic. Onward to Yellowstone tomorrow! Another long drive, but this one should at least be interesting. This is also the end of our long drives as the West Coast ones are 5 hours max. I'm looking forward to that. 

The Money Shot

What up, Lincoln?
What the sculpture is actually supposed to look like

I'm adorable
Ch'nel goes exploring
More exploring

This is what I saw all day. Love it!

These mountain goat/ram things were causing traffic to go nuts trying to find a parking spot to photograph them. And they just chilled there like pros

When Chiz sees someone taking a cool picture she has to copy it. We're copying someone else's picture right here
Gorgeous 
The Needles Eye
Crazy Horse Memorial
What it should look like when it's done
Shaq's shoe? Why not

It's Hard to Beat The System

Chicago was fantastic but we had to move on. Thats the theme of this trip, never stay in one place long enough to get attached. So we packed up our bags, checked out and moved out. 

Today's drive was long and boring. We drove first to Madison, WI where we knew there would be places to get a cup of coffee and check the internet. This drive consisted of one long road through almost country. It wasn't QUITE country, just almost country. Basically it was boring. But we soldiered on before reaching Madison.

The streets of Madison are all arranged around the capitol building. It starts off orderly, a single one way street in a square around the building. As you get further and further away from the building it becomes more and more of a mess with streets going every which way. All of them being one way streets as well. We were searching for coffee shops but all we could find were bars. This is the home of University of Wisconsin-Madison, what can you say. We spotted one and immediately parked the car. Internet was in sight, we were going to find a place to sleep tonight. As Ch'nel searched for a hotel I nursed my cup of coffee and eagerly refreshed Twitter and Facebook. Over and over again. I'm really addicted to the internet, it's bad. 

We secured a hotel room, signed off of Twitter and finished up our coffee. We still had another half hour on our meter so we strolled around downtown Madison for awhile. It's a sweet town which houses the state capitol. The capitol building is quite impressive in that it looks at first glance just like the US capitol. We circled around the building and it's impressively manicured lawns, examined the other businesses that the town had to offer and then returned to our car to continue along the way.

Back off into the most boring drive ever we went. It started to get a little more interesting as the landscape began to turn into rolling hills of corn and picturesque farm houses. All of a sudden huge rock formations began to pop up and the corn turned to pine trees. Unexpected, but cool! "Alright" we think "Wisconsin's kind of cool".

Until flashing lights appeared behind us. I checked my spedometer, I was going the speed limit, I hadn't had a drink in 24 hours, all of my lights seemed to be working, what the heck was the problem. We pull over and gathered up our materials and waited for the cop to come tell us what was up. The cops comes up, shows us his badge and identify's himself then tells us we were pulled over for failure to move over a lane in response to an emergency vehicle. What? He laughs and asks if we have that rule in New Jersey. I think long and hard and tell him that no, I really don't think we do, then ask him to explain. Apparently if there is an emergency vehicle in the shoulder with his lights on, you are required to move over to the left lane. The only emergency vehicle I saw, which was this guy, was the police car that was near the off ramp. When I drove by him I simply assumed he was going up the off ramp. That was a $260 assumption. W-T-F. I hate Wisconsin. 

We get back on the road and spend the next half hour trying to figure out what just happened. To look on the bright side, we were running out of conversation topics for the day. This gave us another hour of conversation. 

Eventually we made it to Minneapolis where we checked into our hotel before running out to the Mall of America. It was big, that's for sure...but there really weren't many stores in it. There was a scrapbooking convention, which was awesome to watch. Also an amusement parks with absolutely terrifying rides. I assumed that the park rides in the mall would be fairly tame, but no these were some of the most terrifying roller coasters I've seen. To be fair, all roller coasters terrify me. Also a downer? Despite what D2: The Mighty Ducks tells you...you can't roller blade in the Mall of America. 

The MoA also had a strange breed of people as shoppers. Chiz and I got in the elevator with a young woman and a not so young man and tried to avoid eye contact as best as possible. We failed, and this exchange followed

Girl: This man...this man here just proposed to me

Us: Oh....wow

Chiz: Did you say yes?

Girl: Of course I did!

Me: Congratulations, that's great

Man: Nah, she's just kidding...she's actually my niece

*silence*

Me: Well now this is just awkward

Chiz: yea, for all parties involved

Girl: Haha, that was funny! Let's do that to more people

The Mall of America, everyone. It's filled with crazy. 

Now it's off to bed. We have an early morning tomorrow as we're going to try and get out to Mt. Rushmore. That's about a 9 hour drive, so we need to be fresh. Internet for the next few days is most likely going to be spotty as we're going to be camping. I'll try and update when I can.

The Windy City

Ch'nel tries her hand at blogging! Since I am incredibly possessive over my blogs I have included my own commentary in italics. I'll deal with the reprecussions during our 9 hour drive tomorrow. She might beat me, I may be a judger but she's a hitter.  

Also please note that there is an additional new blog entry below this one. Please read that one first.

Here goes my first ever blog: 

I slept great my first night in the Windy City. Marianna tells me that at one point in the night I opened my eyes, reached my hand over in front of her face and asked, “What material is this glove made of?” The best answer she could come up was “Um, I don’t know”, to which I replied, “Ok” and slipped back into my real-bed-induced coma. I apologize to anyone who has ever run into me while I was sleepwalking...Ch'nel's midnight conversation with me was really creepy. 

We got up and out fairly quickly, excited as ever to see Chi-town first hand. I was a little bit too excited because I got on the hotel shuttle wearing flip-flops with socks. Don’t worry, we turned back. I'm partially responsible. I stood in the hotel lobby yelling "COME ON! COME ON! WE. GOTTA. GO!" at her while she tried to make her coffee. She did make it all the way to the lobby without wearing shoes. A semi-creepy but helpful CTA worker gave us directions to a supermarket where we could purchase a 24 hour pass for the train. Poor guy, he asked us where we wanted to go and I shrugged and said "dunno...the city?". I hate hate hate it when people do that to me about New York but I also hate sharing my plans with other people. He did not seem pleased with my answer. Sweet! Before we knew it we were on the blue line heading downtown, past the Addison street station. If Nanny could read, she’d get a shout out right here. Let's still give her a shout out! Hey Nanny!

Our first stop was Millenium Park, where we checked out the amphitheater and bp bridge designed by Frank Gehry, and took pictures of Cloud Gate, the giant reflective bean. We sauntered through the gardens and strolled down the pier. We walked right past the Chicago theater and into a Borders. Free wi-fi (that actually works) is hard to come by, so we grabbed some caffeine and looked up the locations of some other Chicago must-sees.  

Marianna led us right to the front doors of the Sears tower, only it said Willis Tower in huge black letters. Apparently it had a recent name change. Its cool, we know someone who just changed her name to Mrs. Scarlett out of nowhere. You just accept these things. The lady behind us could not. Basically she was whining because the people of Chicago do not know who this Willis is. And the name sounds British. Now Sears – that’s a regular American household word. They had a catalog! We wished out loud that we would not have to ride the elevator with this woman. We did. Yep, all 103 floors to the top.  

Once we stepped out of the elevator doors, however, we forgot all about the whiny lady. From the windows we could see all of Chicago – we pointed out the mini-sized Millenium Park and the bushy area we decided was Wrigley field. We turned the corner to see the Skydeck ledges… glass boxes that hung from the side of the tower at over 1300 feet in the air. Marianna used her “I’ll hold your bag” line, but eventually found the guts to step out into the sky with me. Despite our trembling hands, we managed to get photo proof of us risking our lives. We had already managed to get out of Gary, IN alive so we were feeling pretty gutsy. 

Extreme elevation made us realize we were starving, so we made our descent and got ourselves a deep dish pizza across the street. We asked our waiter how to get to the lakefront beach. He explained that we needed to take a train, and then walk about 5 to 10 minutes to the shore. This was “the biggest bitch,” he said in his thick Italian accent. No problem, we don’t mind walking, sir. “I mean, the biggest beach, I’m sorry.”  

We made it to the Lake Michigan beach in no time where we saw volleyball players making the most of the awesome weather. I envied their tans. I’m being honest here. We had to get out of there fast. 

Back in the city we met up with Marianna’s high school friend Liz, who took us down the magnificent mile. Liz rattled off the names and brief histories of buildings and stores and water towers but claimed she didn’t know what she was talking about. She knew what she was doing when she brought us into the Ghirardelli store for ice cream, that’s for sure. Thank you, Liz.  

At last, it was time for a visit with long lost friend AP before calling it a night. Andrew told us to meet him on Harrison street and we, of course, were fixin to roll. Andrew treated us to drinks and appetizers at a little restaurant/bar where he knew everyone. We updated him on Princeton and he filled us in on his recent academic and cycling endeavors. You’ll be pleased to hear that he just about runs Chicago. Look out Mayor Daley, AP is the people’s choice.  

Our day went fantastically, and we loved our first visit to the Windy City. We got back to the hotel and immediately went into a deep sleep, dreaming of all the other sweet days that lie ahead. Excellent job, Ch'nel! I think I can keep you on as co-blogger.

The 25 Hour Day

I realize there has been a bit of a blog blackout. Our hotel in Chicago promised free wireless internet, that was a lie. There was internet if you stood in the lobby with the every other hotel guest and held your internet device in the air while spinning around until you found a connection. It just wasn't worth it. So we have three days worth of blog entries that must be posted in order to get back on schedule. We're in Minneapolis right now at a hotel with a fantastic internet connection. I'll post the first one now then maybe write up the second two tonight and post them tonight or tomorrow morning. So keep checking back, there's a motherload coming.

Day 2

Another smooth day down. We woke up in scenic Oberlin, OH after a comfortable night on Aba’s futon. With our next destination, Chicago, only 5 hours away we were able to sleep in a little and explore downtown Oberlin.

After searching for hotels in Chicago and witnessing Aba’s roommate do an interpretive dance to Shakira’s “Shewolf” (whether she knew we were watching or not…it was interesting to say the least) we followed Aba downtown where she directed us to a breakfast joint. We were given specific orders to order the vegan pancakes rather than the regular ones, so we did just that. Did I blow my cover by ordering mine with butter and coffee with cream? Yes. I also threw in some bananas.

Our breakfast came and it was amazing. The pancakes were each the size of a dinner plate, thick and fluffy. I’m getting hungry just thinking about them. A mug of coffee the size of a small barrel finished off a fantastic meal.

Ch’nel and I took some time to explore the town of Oberlin and deemed it fantastic. As a small college town filled with hippies, Oberlin offers organic cafes, used bookstores and everyone on bicycles. On a cool late summer day with bright blue skies it was absolutely Norman Rockwell-esque. If it wasn’t for the damn hippies…I definitely could have seen myself there.

I had to leave, however, before the urge to stop shaving my legs and start wearing oversized striped shirts over spandex hit me. Ch’nel offered to drive and I had no problem agreeing. We had a long drive across Ohio and Indiana ahead of us…very boring territory. We made it through Ohio surprisingly fast. In no time we crossed he state line into Indiana where we had a couple side trips planned. When we left Oberlin we noticed that we would be going through Gary, IN…birthplace of Michael Jackson. Knowing nothing about Gary, IN (this was our first mistake) we decided that it would definitely be worth a side trip. We punched it into the GPS and were told that it would get us there at 4:15pm. Excellent. As we got going I noticed that we would be passing through South Bend, IN and asked Chiz if we could stop at Notre Dame university so that I could see the stadium and Touchdown Jesus. Punch it into the GPS, arrival time 4:30. Great. Wait…but South Bend is a good 50 miles east of Gary. How are we going to get there after?

Enter time zone change! Immediately after South Bend we would be entering the Central Time Zone, thus gaining an hour. We never would have figured this out if it wasn’t for the GPS as well, as the sign announcing the change was a tiny thing that simply said “Now entering the CST Zone”.

South Bend and Notre Dame itself was fine. Nothing too interesting. We saw the stadium, it was big. We saw Touchdown Jesus, he was hilarious. Otherwise…it was a typical catholic university. Same buildings you see at Nova, G-town, BC. Same names even. We wandered around to stretch our legs but quickly continued on.

As soon as we left ND we threw on the Michael Jackson tunes. Ch’nel has quite a lot. We breezed down the highway through cornfield after cornfield. My mother had warned me that Gary was not a good area, sketchy if you will. Looking at the miles of fields I thought she must be nuts. Suddenly, BAM! Traffic, congestion, city. Gary is the beginning of the Chicago metropolitan area and it came out of no where. We got off the highway near MJs house and were immediately thrown into an area that hasn’t seen prosperity in decades. Crap. I’m going to be completely honest, the fact that I have a degree in “cities” does not mean I’m not scared out of my mind when driving through rows of abandoned houses. It was light out, however, and I assumed that there would be some sort of crowd around MJ’s house given his recent untimely death.

We discovered that by crowd…there was a woman with a stand selling t-shirts. Despite what you saw on TV there was not memorial of flowers and notes. No fans flocking to pay their respects. It was a house. With a woman who had a stand with t-shirts. We took a picture out the window then decided to get the hell out of there as fast as we could.

We bumped down the main drag of Gary which was filled with burnt out and boarded up theaters and stores. We finally reached the enterence to the highway….and discovered it was closed. Ahead of us was a gated off factory of some sort and behind us was Gary. After stressing for a few moments we found a place to turn around and saw a detour sign. With our eyes staring firmly straight ahead we made our way back to the Indiana Toll Road and began our approach to Chicago.

We flew into Chicago with no traffic. Given that it was 5:30 and that Chicago is known for it’s rush hour traffic I was amazed. Well not for long, apparently going INTO Chicago at rush hour is no problem, but coming OUT of Chicago (as we are staying near O’Hare airport) was jam packed. We inched our way through traffic while I talked to my friend Liz from high school to plan out a chance to get together. We agreed that I would call her when I got to the hotel then we could arrange for us to go over to her house for dinner.

That plan went out the window when we got to our hotel and sat down on the bed. While not outrageously comfortable, it was real bed. Something we hadn’t had last night. We rearranged plans to meet tomorrow. That’s a better idea. We ordered a pizza, watched some TV and now we’re heading to bed. It’ll be good to get a good nights sleep.