Edgewood, KY through Sewickley, PA

Brian: It is my secret dream that some millionaire-

Nick: Pause. Riddle: A man buys coconuts at three dollars each and sells them for two dollars each. Through this process, he becomes a millionaire. A prize for the first reader to solve this conundrum. Un-pause.

Brian: -with a spirit for adventure decides to live vicariously through us and sponsors us to continue this trip for another several years, on the condition that we continue to write the blog. If you know any rich people, send them the link. Speaking of rich people, you would not believe the house we are staying in this evening.

Nick: If King Arthur, Wily Coyote and Hugh Hefner co-decorated a mansion in Sewickley, PA, and each had a passion for dramatically dangly chandeliers, it would not be unlike this house.

Brian: In due time my friends, in due time. We spent the first of what is sure to be many nights in our borrowed sleeping bags last night, our bellies filled with what may be the most delicious ice cream in the nation. The Oprah literally has pints of this stuff flown to her house. I’m guessing several pints a day.

Nick: I don’t think you should talk about The Oprah that way, man. But I interrupt. Please continue.

Brian: We have to take advantage of these nights when we have a warm bed or couch to sleep on, because with only two days of advance planning it’s likely that many of our nights will be spent in a tent on an access road, or in a reclined car seat. A final special thanks to Bob and Debbie, your acts of hospitality will always be remembered as the first of many. Our first destination was Bellaire, OH. Apparently one of the largest privately owned collections of Legos in the country resides there. Is it possible for something to simultaneously fall short of and exceed ones expectations? The small towns of America are like dull grey stones. When broken apart they reveal their history in the form of precious gems.

Nick: What my colleague is saying, I think, is that if we could just destroy the small towns of this county, (preferably with an earthquake generation machine,) we would certainly be rewarded untold riches. Sarah Palin would agree. I just know it.

Brian: Something like that…

Nick: Anyway, the Lego museum was intense. The building itself used to be an elementary school, which had begun to fall apart after the place was abandoned. In an effort to save the historic location, a local guy filled the entire place with his collection of giant Lego statues and figurines in order to try to draw an income for restoration. Still with me? Good. Now go to my Facebook page and check out some pictures. You should now be lost, and I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that. For those of you that don’t have the fbook, I will describe the first few objects made of Legos that greeted me as we entered the museum so that you can try to piece together (pun intended) what this place might be like: A carousel with only cows, Darth Vader, a nerdy employee wearing what appeared to be a table cloth, a troll, and a red man reclining in the nude. In other words, it was a normal stop on our trip thus far. Below are but a few images from the stop:





Brian: For those of you who are my facebook friends, add Nick Ison in order to peruse more photos from the museum. He will say yes. Don’t be shy. Yes, the Lego museum was dingy and poorly kept, but let us not forget that this fine establishment operates out of the jurisdiction and sponsorship of the Lego corporation, hereby referred to as “The Man”. The fine tablecloth wearing mistress of, for legal reasons, what must be referred to as the Plastic Brick museum informed us of the difficulty of operating a Lego based business without the sanction of The Man. It would seem that a provision of the Legoland Theme Park California contract stated that “no other permanent Lego based displays shall exist in the United States”. As a result the completion of the Plastic Brick museum was rushed, to say the least, and the circumstances under which it operates are suboptimal. I had no idea Lego Corp were such sharks.

Nick: Damn the Man.

Brian: And so we close by relating our sleeping conditions for the evening. Through the wonder of the electronic national classifieds known as Craigslist we were able to communicate with a fine young lady outside of Pittsburgh, Sewickley to be exact, and make a arrangement for what we thought would be a small square of floor space. It turns out she has the difficult task of house sitting for a multimillionaire, and to top it all off Amy and her friend Fara are making us cupcakes. Oh, and breakfast. We have our own beds to sleep in, and an invitation to return after completing another couple legs of our trip. The tastiness of the cupcakes will determine whether or not we take her up on the second offer.

Nick: Time for a reader poll: which is best? Sprinkles mixed into the icing, or delicately sprinkled on top? Also, for those who care to know, the song of the day was “Freebird.” ALSO! We went to another pre-pay gas station, and this time overpaid by a dollar. So of course, we had to decide whether a dollar is worth getting out of the car and communicating further with the cave-man behind the lotto tickets at the counter, or if we should just drive off. CAN ANYONE HELP US?