Nick: We’re back. After as six week break, me in Indiana and Brian here in Washington, we have been reunited for the second leg of the trip. We’re heading down the West Coast this time, which promises to be the best coast with its sun, beaches, biddies, and… biddies? As to our doings during the break… I worked at a board game store, Brian didn’t, and now we’re both back in Seattle. New updates: Andreas, totally out. Tyler, our friend who you may recall from Missoula, Montana is in. He can’t do the whole leg, but he’s in for the first couple weeks.
Brian: I’m looking forward to this leg of the journey. There should be a lot more camping, especially as the weather warms up. My Christmas break was great and well needed (“well-needed” is quickly becoming one of my most used phrases) and I scored a laptop, which will make blogging/Couchsurfing that much easier. We tried to kick off our trip with a night of snowboarding, but due to my lack of planning, we just ended up taking a leisurely drive up to Steven’s Pass.
Nick: Except for when a giant log that fell across the highway. A cute snow bunny helped us clear it off the road though, so it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant experience.
Brian: So nobody else makes the same mistake I did: There is no night skiing on Wednesdays. Beside that incident things seem to be going well. In fact, the universe itself seems to be blessing our trip; the weather is great today, CouchSurfers are happy to receive us with a variety of events in Portland, OR, and Tyler is a creative writing major, so we expect him to seamlessly merge with and enhance our already amazing style. Pressure’s on.
Tyler: I don’t think I can handle this type of pressure… I might have a nervous breakdown before we even leave. I’m stoked, that’s right stoked, to be on this leg of journey. I basically did this same leg of journey last summer but now there won’t be any crowds and I won’t get all my stuff stolen, hopefully. Sandy cold beaches and life among the redwoods here we come!
Nick: Before signing off for the day, I’d like to take this opportunity to post the states through which we’ve driven thus far, in the order through which we’ve driven through them. Please... enjoy:
1. Indiana
2. Ohio
3. Kentucky
4. Ohio
5. West Virginia
6. Pennsylvania
7. New York
8. Pennsylvania
9. New York
10. Vermont
11. New Hampshire
12. Maine
13. New Hampshire
14. Massachussetts
15. New Hampshire
16. Massachussetts
17. Rhode Island
18. Connecticut
19. Rhode Island
20. Connecticut
21. New York
22. New Jersey
23. New York
24. New Jersey
25. Pennsylvania
26. New Jersey
27. Pennsylvania
28. New Jersey
29. Pennsylvania
30. Maryland
31. DC
32. Virginia
33. DC
34. Virginia
35. DC
36. Virginia
37. DC
38. Virginia
39. DC
40. Maryland
41. DC
42. Virginia
43. DC
44. Virginia
45. DC
46. Virginia
47. North Carolina
48. Tennessee
49. North Carolina
50. Georgia
51. Tennessee
52. Georgia
53. Tennessee
54. Kentucky
55. Indiana
56. Kentucky
57. Indiana
58. Illinois
59. Wisconsin
60. Minnesota
61. North Dakota
62. Minnesota
63. North Dakota
64. Minnesota
65. North Dakota
66. South Dakota
67. Wyoming
68. Montana
69. Idaho
70. Montana
71. Idaho
72. Washington
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Thursday, December 3, 2009
We are still alive
To our droves of loyal readers: Brian and Nick are alive as of 6:16 pm, December 3rd 2009. Do not be afraid. Do not call the authorities. After months of professional road tripping, we have decided to take a pause from the action during this holiday season in a desperate attempt to rebuild ties to family and friends and, more importantly, to detox from mountains of Arby's roast beef sandwiches and gallons of PRB... The trip and the blog will resume sometime early January, tentatively January 4th. Believe us when we say that the best is yet to come as we make our way down the west coast and eventually to Las Vegas. Be strong. The blog be with you.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sioux Falls, SD through Rapid CIty, SD
Nick: If you’ve been following the blog the last week or two, you will have discovered that there’s been a fair degree of normalcy, stability, and ordinary happening lately. In other words, life as we’ve come to know it on this trip has become completely crazy and mixed up, and we hate it. This sixty-first day put us back on track with the aforementioned Wall Drug in addition to a very strange area of the country known as the “Badlands”
Brian: Like many destinations on this trip, the Badlands was a recommended stop by a CouchSurfer we spent an evening with, though we’ve stayed with so many people I can’t remember who to credit. Nine times out of ten these recommendations are at worst quite interesting and at best freakin’ awesome. One times out of ten the recommendation is Fargo, North Dakota.
Nick: I leave the numbers to Brian.
Brian: So we left Matt and Pam’s place after Pam made us all a delicious waffle breakfast, bringing our consecutive home-cooked meal count to 2, a record for the trip. We hit the road soon after and pulled onto I-90, which is comforting because we could potentially take it all the way to Seattle. Driving through South Dakota is the most boring thing ever, except for the billboards every 15 feet advertising some crazy attraction. Reptile World, Deadwood (Olde Western Towne), and the infamous Wall Drug. Feel free to jump in if you remember some more.
Nick: Something about the world famous wood carving museum. I don’t know anything about it other than it’s the place where wood comes alive. Yikes. When we got to the Badlands, we were greeted by a sign inviting us to please stop by the visitor’s center and deposit fifteen dollars for the privilege of driving on the road that went through this wacky terrain. Seeing as how we’re on something of a budget, we politely disregarded the invitation and cruised on through. The landscape was pretty zany: rock formations, weird lake shapes. Things that make land difficult to cross, farm with, and build on. Bad lands. We walked around, found no snakes, hopped back in the car to continue our trek.
Brian: Yeah, it looked like the kind of place snakes would hang out. But I wasn’t too worried. They were the Badlands, not the Worstlands.
Nick: Eh…
Brian: So after driving through the Badlands the road conveniently pooped us out at the town (barely) of Wall, home of the notorious Wall Drug. Nick and I didn’t really know what to expect, but we followed the signs and soon found ourselves in a massive empty parking lot, with a sign claiming Wall Drug was only half a block away, just around the corner. And when we rounded the corner, what did we find? At first glance, Wall Drug seems to be a dinky little drug store with trashy overpriced souvenir trinkets, but upon entering the establishment you find that it is actually a massive chain of dinky little drug stores with trashy overpriced souvenir trinkets. There’s also a crappy animatronic dinosaur that “feeds” (lights up and moves around a bit more) every 12 minutes. We grabbed a bison dog and a homemade doughnut each and bounced out of there pretty quick.
Nick: Wow dude, this is kind of surprising to me actually. I thought we liked Wall Drug. I liked Wall Drug. There was a lot of cool stuff to see: an awesome animatronic dinosaur, a rideable jackalope, historic photos, creepy statues, a machine that played five instruments at once almost together and almost in tune, a Moxie salesman, and an overall lingering sense of complete insanity. Which I like. They also had all the free water you could drink. I will say that there was likely one component of the visit I think we both could have lived without, and that would be the most terrible bug or food poisoning we acquired during our time there. That evening was one of the worst I’ve had in a long time, if not ever.
Brian: Well, Wall Drug was crappy in that, “I definitely am glad we went there,” kind of way. Yeah, as soon as we left Wall for Rapid City I started to feel a little queasy but played it off as the side effect of a long day of driving. We met up briefly with our host, Chet, who works two jobs and showed us around his place. He works as a bar manager at night and invited us to grab dinner and a drink at his bar later that evening. We said sure and kicked it at his place and shot some pool while waiting for our Canadian friends to show up. There’s not that many people in South Dakota so in retrospect I’m not surprised we ended up surfing the same couches two nights in a row. That’s where things get a little fuzzy for me. A fever hit me hard and fast and I retired to the bedroom circa 6:45 pm to try to sleep through the night.
Nick: An interesting side note before the gruesome events of the rest of the evening: Chet, in addition to managing a bar, is also a fully licensed contractor. Which is interesting considering the fact that once we showed up at his house, he immediately leapt onto the roof and for the next fifteen to twenty minutes or so frantically repaired a less then stellar roofing job with tarps and old tires. The shoe maker’s son runs barefoot, as they say… Anyway, the Canadians showed up, we chatted, and as he said, Brian hit the sack. At this point I was also not feeling so hot, but I wanted to see if I could tough it out. Chet had invited us to go out to his work place at night for some food and fellowship, and I’m usually pretty down for both. Mistake. As the phantom illness had hit my traveling companion with little warning, I too was crushed with a screaming fever, pounding headache, and vicious cough suddenly during the middle of 30 Rock. I went to the room Brian had already secured which was at this point somewhere around 80°, no doubt his doing in an attempt to stop the intense shivering we were both experiencing. I don’t remember everything from that night, but I do remember not being able to sleep for more than ten minutes at a time and batting frantically at what I thought, in my feverish, delusional state, was a bat swooping down on my head. It wasn’t pretty folks.
Brian: I too slept very little that night. It was awful and I wanted my mom. I felt like somebody was hitting me in the nuts with a frozen sledgehammer. Nick and Brian, out.
Nick: Wait, that’s how you’re going to end it? Dang, this road trip just got real y'all.
Brian: Like many destinations on this trip, the Badlands was a recommended stop by a CouchSurfer we spent an evening with, though we’ve stayed with so many people I can’t remember who to credit. Nine times out of ten these recommendations are at worst quite interesting and at best freakin’ awesome. One times out of ten the recommendation is Fargo, North Dakota.
Nick: I leave the numbers to Brian.
Brian: So we left Matt and Pam’s place after Pam made us all a delicious waffle breakfast, bringing our consecutive home-cooked meal count to 2, a record for the trip. We hit the road soon after and pulled onto I-90, which is comforting because we could potentially take it all the way to Seattle. Driving through South Dakota is the most boring thing ever, except for the billboards every 15 feet advertising some crazy attraction. Reptile World, Deadwood (Olde Western Towne), and the infamous Wall Drug. Feel free to jump in if you remember some more.
Nick: Something about the world famous wood carving museum. I don’t know anything about it other than it’s the place where wood comes alive. Yikes. When we got to the Badlands, we were greeted by a sign inviting us to please stop by the visitor’s center and deposit fifteen dollars for the privilege of driving on the road that went through this wacky terrain. Seeing as how we’re on something of a budget, we politely disregarded the invitation and cruised on through. The landscape was pretty zany: rock formations, weird lake shapes. Things that make land difficult to cross, farm with, and build on. Bad lands. We walked around, found no snakes, hopped back in the car to continue our trek.
Brian: Yeah, it looked like the kind of place snakes would hang out. But I wasn’t too worried. They were the Badlands, not the Worstlands.
Nick: Eh…
Brian: So after driving through the Badlands the road conveniently pooped us out at the town (barely) of Wall, home of the notorious Wall Drug. Nick and I didn’t really know what to expect, but we followed the signs and soon found ourselves in a massive empty parking lot, with a sign claiming Wall Drug was only half a block away, just around the corner. And when we rounded the corner, what did we find? At first glance, Wall Drug seems to be a dinky little drug store with trashy overpriced souvenir trinkets, but upon entering the establishment you find that it is actually a massive chain of dinky little drug stores with trashy overpriced souvenir trinkets. There’s also a crappy animatronic dinosaur that “feeds” (lights up and moves around a bit more) every 12 minutes. We grabbed a bison dog and a homemade doughnut each and bounced out of there pretty quick.
Nick: Wow dude, this is kind of surprising to me actually. I thought we liked Wall Drug. I liked Wall Drug. There was a lot of cool stuff to see: an awesome animatronic dinosaur, a rideable jackalope, historic photos, creepy statues, a machine that played five instruments at once almost together and almost in tune, a Moxie salesman, and an overall lingering sense of complete insanity. Which I like. They also had all the free water you could drink. I will say that there was likely one component of the visit I think we both could have lived without, and that would be the most terrible bug or food poisoning we acquired during our time there. That evening was one of the worst I’ve had in a long time, if not ever.
Brian: Well, Wall Drug was crappy in that, “I definitely am glad we went there,” kind of way. Yeah, as soon as we left Wall for Rapid City I started to feel a little queasy but played it off as the side effect of a long day of driving. We met up briefly with our host, Chet, who works two jobs and showed us around his place. He works as a bar manager at night and invited us to grab dinner and a drink at his bar later that evening. We said sure and kicked it at his place and shot some pool while waiting for our Canadian friends to show up. There’s not that many people in South Dakota so in retrospect I’m not surprised we ended up surfing the same couches two nights in a row. That’s where things get a little fuzzy for me. A fever hit me hard and fast and I retired to the bedroom circa 6:45 pm to try to sleep through the night.
Nick: An interesting side note before the gruesome events of the rest of the evening: Chet, in addition to managing a bar, is also a fully licensed contractor. Which is interesting considering the fact that once we showed up at his house, he immediately leapt onto the roof and for the next fifteen to twenty minutes or so frantically repaired a less then stellar roofing job with tarps and old tires. The shoe maker’s son runs barefoot, as they say… Anyway, the Canadians showed up, we chatted, and as he said, Brian hit the sack. At this point I was also not feeling so hot, but I wanted to see if I could tough it out. Chet had invited us to go out to his work place at night for some food and fellowship, and I’m usually pretty down for both. Mistake. As the phantom illness had hit my traveling companion with little warning, I too was crushed with a screaming fever, pounding headache, and vicious cough suddenly during the middle of 30 Rock. I went to the room Brian had already secured which was at this point somewhere around 80°, no doubt his doing in an attempt to stop the intense shivering we were both experiencing. I don’t remember everything from that night, but I do remember not being able to sleep for more than ten minutes at a time and batting frantically at what I thought, in my feverish, delusional state, was a bat swooping down on my head. It wasn’t pretty folks.
Brian: I too slept very little that night. It was awful and I wanted my mom. I felt like somebody was hitting me in the nuts with a frozen sledgehammer. Nick and Brian, out.
Nick: Wait, that’s how you’re going to end it? Dang, this road trip just got real y'all.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Fargo, ND through Sioux Falls, SD
Brian: We snuck out of Dan’s early (astute readers will notice a pattern) and hit the road heading south. It wasn’t long before we saw our first billboard advertising Wall Drug. Just turn right on I-90 and go another 300 miles. Wait, what?
Nick: Yeah, this is pretty bizarre actually. There’s apparently some pharmacy or something in Wall, South Dakota with signs posted hundreds of miles away from the actual location. For the entire day of driving we’d pass one of these stupid signs every exit or so. Clearly, Wall Drug was a place we’d need to be visiting in the next day or two. In the meantime, when I got out to pump gas along this long and lonely road, I discovered my credit card to be missing. Which was weird, since I remember having it when we left Dan’s and because I’d purchased some bubble gum from a different gas station about an hour back. Well, we checked the car. No luck. Called Dan. No luck. Must be back at some gas station roughly an hour back down the road. Awesome. So… we headed back, hoping we’d recognize the exit when we came to it. Some time later, for reasons I don’t really understand, we did recognize it. And… joy of joys, they had my card. Apparently someone had found it and given it to the attendant. Brian, without a moment’s hesitation, without a word, walked straight to the casino that was attached to the gas station. It made sense to me, so I went along. We each put a buck in a slot machine. Luck had run out.
Brian: Yes, our luck ended with the reunion of Nick and his credit card. On the plus side, I thought slot machines with an actual arm you have to pull down had been all but eliminated from America. It was refreshing to see surly chain smoking hags actually having to work to throw away their cash. You see, with a one-armed bandit you actually have to switch you cigarette to the right hand to put the coin in, and then back to the left hand to pull the lever. Of course, true professionals never even remove the cigarettes from their mouths. So anyway, by the time we got to Whatevertown we didn’t really have time to check out the town. Something tells me we didn’t miss very much.
Nick: Indeed. So back on the road, seeing some very familiar scenery for the next sixty miles or so, we listened to a pod cast Brian introduced me to called “Uhh, yeah dude.” It’s these two guys from LA just talking about random current events and whatever else they care to, and it’s pretty good. I’d recommend it to some people.
Brian: I would also specifically not recommend it to some people.
Nick: Yep. Anyway, we made it to Sioux Falls, which was our final destination for the day. We met up with our host couple, Matt and Pam, who were apparently the Couchsurfing gurus of the area. We hung out for a bit, chit chatted about this and that, then welcomed the couple’s additional couch surfing guests Matt and Genni, a Canadian couple from Canada. Turns out they’re also on their way to Seattle. Turns out they’re also going to Rapid City tomorrow night. Turns out we’ll be seeing them again, as our host for the next night and their host for the next night are one and the same. Crazy.
Brian: It simply reinforces our original postulation that there are not a lot of people out here, and therefore not a lot of options. Matt and Pam said they have hosted over 80 people since May. I respect their devotion to the community. The night ended with a game of Cranium, which I hate, but still delivered a decisive victory in. So now you can’t even say I don’t like it because I suck at it. In fact I’m awesome. The teamwork aspects of the game were especially easy, due to the fact the Nick and I have spent the last two months within arms reach of each other. Oh, we almost forget to mention that today is day 60, our official 2-month-iversary. Thanks for sticking with us! We are out like shoulder pads.
Nick: Yeah, this is pretty bizarre actually. There’s apparently some pharmacy or something in Wall, South Dakota with signs posted hundreds of miles away from the actual location. For the entire day of driving we’d pass one of these stupid signs every exit or so. Clearly, Wall Drug was a place we’d need to be visiting in the next day or two. In the meantime, when I got out to pump gas along this long and lonely road, I discovered my credit card to be missing. Which was weird, since I remember having it when we left Dan’s and because I’d purchased some bubble gum from a different gas station about an hour back. Well, we checked the car. No luck. Called Dan. No luck. Must be back at some gas station roughly an hour back down the road. Awesome. So… we headed back, hoping we’d recognize the exit when we came to it. Some time later, for reasons I don’t really understand, we did recognize it. And… joy of joys, they had my card. Apparently someone had found it and given it to the attendant. Brian, without a moment’s hesitation, without a word, walked straight to the casino that was attached to the gas station. It made sense to me, so I went along. We each put a buck in a slot machine. Luck had run out.
Brian: Yes, our luck ended with the reunion of Nick and his credit card. On the plus side, I thought slot machines with an actual arm you have to pull down had been all but eliminated from America. It was refreshing to see surly chain smoking hags actually having to work to throw away their cash. You see, with a one-armed bandit you actually have to switch you cigarette to the right hand to put the coin in, and then back to the left hand to pull the lever. Of course, true professionals never even remove the cigarettes from their mouths. So anyway, by the time we got to Whatevertown we didn’t really have time to check out the town. Something tells me we didn’t miss very much.
Nick: Indeed. So back on the road, seeing some very familiar scenery for the next sixty miles or so, we listened to a pod cast Brian introduced me to called “Uhh, yeah dude.” It’s these two guys from LA just talking about random current events and whatever else they care to, and it’s pretty good. I’d recommend it to some people.
Brian: I would also specifically not recommend it to some people.
Nick: Yep. Anyway, we made it to Sioux Falls, which was our final destination for the day. We met up with our host couple, Matt and Pam, who were apparently the Couchsurfing gurus of the area. We hung out for a bit, chit chatted about this and that, then welcomed the couple’s additional couch surfing guests Matt and Genni, a Canadian couple from Canada. Turns out they’re also on their way to Seattle. Turns out they’re also going to Rapid City tomorrow night. Turns out we’ll be seeing them again, as our host for the next night and their host for the next night are one and the same. Crazy.
Brian: It simply reinforces our original postulation that there are not a lot of people out here, and therefore not a lot of options. Matt and Pam said they have hosted over 80 people since May. I respect their devotion to the community. The night ended with a game of Cranium, which I hate, but still delivered a decisive victory in. So now you can’t even say I don’t like it because I suck at it. In fact I’m awesome. The teamwork aspects of the game were especially easy, due to the fact the Nick and I have spent the last two months within arms reach of each other. Oh, we almost forget to mention that today is day 60, our official 2-month-iversary. Thanks for sticking with us! We are out like shoulder pads.
Minneapolis, MN through Fargo, ND
Brian: Howdy. If you have some spare time in the next couple of days, take a look at a map of the country between Seattle and Minneapolis. Oh you didn’t see any major cities? Yeah, we didn’t really see any either. As a result, our next couple of days will be at least 50% driving, and probably about 30% sleeping. Add in eating and bathroom breaks and that means that only about 7.2% of our time for the next couple of days will be spent engaging in blog-worthy activities. Not to mention the fact that the towns we will be staying in aren’t exactly hubs of civilization and excitement. Our first stop in this barren wasteland is Fargo, North Dakota. Our friends in Madison told us that this place is crazy. Like seriously, there’s nothing like it.
Nick: Really? Fargo? Brian, are we sure we’ve got the right place? The only thing I see constituting the adjective “crazy” is the crazy number of people walking and driving around that seem like they just really don’t want to be in Fargo. It didn’t take long for me to be added to their numbers. After a substantial blog session, (what else were we gonna do?) we found a local pool hall that had pretty good rates and hunkered down to shoot a little 8-ball. Four hours of 8-ball.
Brian: It was a good night for me because I got to do some serious work on my billiards game. The trick is to stay slightly tipsy the whole time in order to create conditional memory. Next time I want to be good at pool I just need to pound a few beers. But beers or no, I can say with no ego that I improved at a pretty rapid pace. You might even call me a progeny. Eleven o’clock rolled around and we still hadn’t heard from our host. It was time to give Dan a call (notice this is the first man we are staying with).
Nick: For safety reasons. But as Brian mentioned earlier, this road trip has changed. We’re out in the wild now. We can’t always be choosy with who we stay with. Dan was nice enough, but we made it kind of an early night. Did I mention there wasn’t a lot going on in Fargo?
Brian: I think another reason that we made it an early night was because Dan’s roommate had recently replaced every light in the apartment with black-light bulbs. Combine that with a bunch of black-light specific commercial hippy art ala Spencer’s gifts and I think it’s easy to see why we didn’t last very long. Next stop, Sioux Falls, SD. Nick and Brian out (to be pronounced with a Canadian accent).
Nick: Really? Fargo? Brian, are we sure we’ve got the right place? The only thing I see constituting the adjective “crazy” is the crazy number of people walking and driving around that seem like they just really don’t want to be in Fargo. It didn’t take long for me to be added to their numbers. After a substantial blog session, (what else were we gonna do?) we found a local pool hall that had pretty good rates and hunkered down to shoot a little 8-ball. Four hours of 8-ball.
Brian: It was a good night for me because I got to do some serious work on my billiards game. The trick is to stay slightly tipsy the whole time in order to create conditional memory. Next time I want to be good at pool I just need to pound a few beers. But beers or no, I can say with no ego that I improved at a pretty rapid pace. You might even call me a progeny. Eleven o’clock rolled around and we still hadn’t heard from our host. It was time to give Dan a call (notice this is the first man we are staying with).
Nick: For safety reasons. But as Brian mentioned earlier, this road trip has changed. We’re out in the wild now. We can’t always be choosy with who we stay with. Dan was nice enough, but we made it kind of an early night. Did I mention there wasn’t a lot going on in Fargo?
Brian: I think another reason that we made it an early night was because Dan’s roommate had recently replaced every light in the apartment with black-light bulbs. Combine that with a bunch of black-light specific commercial hippy art ala Spencer’s gifts and I think it’s easy to see why we didn’t last very long. Next stop, Sioux Falls, SD. Nick and Brian out (to be pronounced with a Canadian accent).
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Minneapolis, MN Day 2
Nick: We awoke to find Abby off to work. Which was too bad, because we liked Abby. She did a lot of art, a lot of travel, a lot of cooking. Things we like. But we needed to get going, there was a lot to see this day. And by a lot, I mean one thing. And by one thing, I mean everything. THE mall of AMERICA.
Brian: /me plays triumphant fanfare.
Nick: If this blog has anything to do with figuring out what this country is all about, and of course it is, then the mall of America should have been our first stop. Is there anything more American? I mean, besides a star-spangled, gun toting, Tim McGraw jamm’n, burger eat’n eagle perched atop a monster truck. Which I think I would like to see someday. Well, it wasn’t our first stop, obvs, but we made it, and we gave it the time it was due. We showed up around 9:15 am, before most things were opened, then settled down and got our blog on in a small café in the middle of the amusement park.
Brian: Wait, what? Yeah that’s right. There is a full-on…
Nick: …don’t say “full-on”…
Brian: …sorry… an entire amusement park within the center of the mall. I couldn’t spend all day in that central chamber of Nickelodeon themed wonderment but Nick got freaked out just looking at the Spongebob coaster. How about the Dora the Explorer coaster? No? Nick made it very clear that it wasn’t even worth my breath trying to convince him to ride it. I think that puts my snake fear into perspective.
Nick: As I explained in the car, there is a long list of reasons hanging out with a snake is a better idea than riding a rollercoaster. I shall enumerate but a few:
1. Riding roller coasters costs money, which could otherwise be spent to buy sandwiches, Moxie, or Moxie sandwiches.
2. No one’s ever been killed, injured or attacked by a four-foot long Ball Python. Have people fallen out of rollercoasters, experienced heart-damaging stress, and otherwise suffered from the unnatural jerking motions of the ride? Of course.
3. One can control one’s actions in the presence of snakes. You can run, you can fight, you can throw someone else in front of them. If things go wrong on a coaster, it’s not going to end well, and no amount of screaming is going to change that.
4. Snakes look cool, and beautiful women look cool when they have snakes draped around themselves. Ever seen a beautiful woman on a rollercoaster? She probably has that stupid expression of sheer terror mixed with explosive glee. Her hair is everywhere, and maybe she’s crying. Not a good look. There are more reasons, but I guess we can move on for now.
Brian: I will simply note your knee-jerk defensiveness as my closing argument. So yeah, so we spent most of the day doing nothing. Literally just walking around the mall or blogging. Even so, my mind was blown. Everyone told me how big this place was going to be, and yet I still underestimated it. It puts most airports to shame.
Nick: Airports? Kind of random. And we didn’t do nothing, we checked out all kinds of cool stores and attractions, then caught a six dollar showing of Zombieland, which I’m happy to report was not interrupted by disgruntled Long Island motorists and was even more excellent the second time around. After the flick, we headed over to our new host’s place, Micaela, for some bike riding and Indian food. Dot Indian.
Brian: Yeah, not feather Indian. Considering how awesome the weather has been the bike ride was amazing. I think my body almost forgot what exercise was. When we got back to Micaela’s we played a game of Spades with her and her roommate, and as usual, confused our opponents with our brilliant strategic minds. They were super cool, and if I’m ever in Minneapolis again I won’t hesitate to give them a ring. Ok, well, for the first time since somewhere before North Carolina we are finally caught up! You have no idea how excited this makes both of us. We apologize for the massive influx of reading our most devoted followers (aka parents) have to catch up on. I love thanking people, so thanks to everyone who has hosted us so far, and also thanks to everyone who reads the blog. Nick and Brian, out of the frying pan and into the freezer.
Nick: Hahaha.
Brian: /me plays triumphant fanfare.
Nick: If this blog has anything to do with figuring out what this country is all about, and of course it is, then the mall of America should have been our first stop. Is there anything more American? I mean, besides a star-spangled, gun toting, Tim McGraw jamm’n, burger eat’n eagle perched atop a monster truck. Which I think I would like to see someday. Well, it wasn’t our first stop, obvs, but we made it, and we gave it the time it was due. We showed up around 9:15 am, before most things were opened, then settled down and got our blog on in a small café in the middle of the amusement park.
Brian: Wait, what? Yeah that’s right. There is a full-on…
Nick: …don’t say “full-on”…
Brian: …sorry… an entire amusement park within the center of the mall. I couldn’t spend all day in that central chamber of Nickelodeon themed wonderment but Nick got freaked out just looking at the Spongebob coaster. How about the Dora the Explorer coaster? No? Nick made it very clear that it wasn’t even worth my breath trying to convince him to ride it. I think that puts my snake fear into perspective.
Nick: As I explained in the car, there is a long list of reasons hanging out with a snake is a better idea than riding a rollercoaster. I shall enumerate but a few:
1. Riding roller coasters costs money, which could otherwise be spent to buy sandwiches, Moxie, or Moxie sandwiches.
2. No one’s ever been killed, injured or attacked by a four-foot long Ball Python. Have people fallen out of rollercoasters, experienced heart-damaging stress, and otherwise suffered from the unnatural jerking motions of the ride? Of course.
3. One can control one’s actions in the presence of snakes. You can run, you can fight, you can throw someone else in front of them. If things go wrong on a coaster, it’s not going to end well, and no amount of screaming is going to change that.
4. Snakes look cool, and beautiful women look cool when they have snakes draped around themselves. Ever seen a beautiful woman on a rollercoaster? She probably has that stupid expression of sheer terror mixed with explosive glee. Her hair is everywhere, and maybe she’s crying. Not a good look. There are more reasons, but I guess we can move on for now.
Brian: I will simply note your knee-jerk defensiveness as my closing argument. So yeah, so we spent most of the day doing nothing. Literally just walking around the mall or blogging. Even so, my mind was blown. Everyone told me how big this place was going to be, and yet I still underestimated it. It puts most airports to shame.
Nick: Airports? Kind of random. And we didn’t do nothing, we checked out all kinds of cool stores and attractions, then caught a six dollar showing of Zombieland, which I’m happy to report was not interrupted by disgruntled Long Island motorists and was even more excellent the second time around. After the flick, we headed over to our new host’s place, Micaela, for some bike riding and Indian food. Dot Indian.
Brian: Yeah, not feather Indian. Considering how awesome the weather has been the bike ride was amazing. I think my body almost forgot what exercise was. When we got back to Micaela’s we played a game of Spades with her and her roommate, and as usual, confused our opponents with our brilliant strategic minds. They were super cool, and if I’m ever in Minneapolis again I won’t hesitate to give them a ring. Ok, well, for the first time since somewhere before North Carolina we are finally caught up! You have no idea how excited this makes both of us. We apologize for the massive influx of reading our most devoted followers (aka parents) have to catch up on. I love thanking people, so thanks to everyone who has hosted us so far, and also thanks to everyone who reads the blog. Nick and Brian, out of the frying pan and into the freezer.
Nick: Hahaha.
Madison, WI through Minneapolis, MN
Brian: Hey everybody. Nick and Brian here feeling delightfully and terrifying refreshed after our night with the boots. Back to Sophia’s this morning for breakfast, which, if you do not recall, is the heavenly establishment open from 8 to noon Saturday and Sunday only. Lucky us! Sadly our pancake breakfasts were not as magnificent as the sandwiches but still quite satisfying. We bid Gabby adieu (easily one of our best CS experiences yet) and left for Minneapolis, which means “City of Water”. The best thing about our blog? Entertaining and informative.
Nick: I like the pictures. The drive to Minneapolis was a long one. And frankly, kind of a boring one. The landscape in these parts is not really my favorite. Pretty bland. To off set this oppressive sense of ennui, we popped in one of the books on tapes we’d brought along. This story followed the adventures of a secret agent nicknamed “pygmy” as he and his comrade agents tried to infiltrate and destroy America through suburban foreign exchange programs. The book was amusing at times, but stylistically grating to listen to. Brian and I decided that we probably would have enjoyed reading the novel, but hearing it spoken was a bit much. No prob, we have others. We stuck in a book about a boy with powers charged with tracking down and eradicating aliens. Awful. Really awful. We figured it was written for young adults but I don’t know…. It was rough. But what’s that expression? Necessity is the mother of invention? I guess that’s true, I mean, in lieu of crappy books on tape we had a brain storming sesh where we came up with our own plots. My first idea: people all across the country are growing in really bizarre ways. Like… there’s some kid in New York with ten-foot long legs. Then a woman in Florida with eight-foot long fingers on her left hand. Eventually an investigation is called, and the team checks out each case as they get more and more extreme. In Kansas, an old woman has grown so enormous that she’s filled an entire house. Mysterious, no? Super gross, no? Possible short story, no?
Brian: My first idea: A mysterious machine the size of small planet is discovered in space and it is perfectly calibrated to generate just enough energy for itself to continue running. When humans step foot on it they disrupt the balance and who know what happens after that.
Nick: Next idea: a small solar systems of planets that are alive, and they relate to each other. The weather on each planet is affected by the mood of the planet, and the planet’s have the maturity and intellect of a group of middle school students. Incidently, a group of middle schoolers on one of the planets just so happen to be the exact copies (in terms of personality, gender, etc) of the planets, and the story follows them. I think it has potential actually, and I’m gonna work on it. We also brainstormed about the novel I hope to have written before too long, and Brian gave me some sweet ideas about it so yeah, what up.
Brian: For our other best ideas check out our current poll. So we rolled into Minneapolis after dark and met our first host, Abby, at a bar. We had a couple local brews and I ordered a boar shepherds pie because I don’t think I’ve ever had boar before. It was great, and I ate a big plate of Brussels sprouts on the side, mom. By this time, and I think I speak for both of us, the awesomeness of Madison was catching up to us. Abby suggested that we pop in a movie. Sounds good. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended edition? Wow, good luck to both of us. To even my own surprise, I survived it while Nick succumbed to road fatigue.
Nick: I was so… sleepy…. Brian and… Nick… (yawn) out…
Nick: I like the pictures. The drive to Minneapolis was a long one. And frankly, kind of a boring one. The landscape in these parts is not really my favorite. Pretty bland. To off set this oppressive sense of ennui, we popped in one of the books on tapes we’d brought along. This story followed the adventures of a secret agent nicknamed “pygmy” as he and his comrade agents tried to infiltrate and destroy America through suburban foreign exchange programs. The book was amusing at times, but stylistically grating to listen to. Brian and I decided that we probably would have enjoyed reading the novel, but hearing it spoken was a bit much. No prob, we have others. We stuck in a book about a boy with powers charged with tracking down and eradicating aliens. Awful. Really awful. We figured it was written for young adults but I don’t know…. It was rough. But what’s that expression? Necessity is the mother of invention? I guess that’s true, I mean, in lieu of crappy books on tape we had a brain storming sesh where we came up with our own plots. My first idea: people all across the country are growing in really bizarre ways. Like… there’s some kid in New York with ten-foot long legs. Then a woman in Florida with eight-foot long fingers on her left hand. Eventually an investigation is called, and the team checks out each case as they get more and more extreme. In Kansas, an old woman has grown so enormous that she’s filled an entire house. Mysterious, no? Super gross, no? Possible short story, no?
Brian: My first idea: A mysterious machine the size of small planet is discovered in space and it is perfectly calibrated to generate just enough energy for itself to continue running. When humans step foot on it they disrupt the balance and who know what happens after that.
Nick: Next idea: a small solar systems of planets that are alive, and they relate to each other. The weather on each planet is affected by the mood of the planet, and the planet’s have the maturity and intellect of a group of middle school students. Incidently, a group of middle schoolers on one of the planets just so happen to be the exact copies (in terms of personality, gender, etc) of the planets, and the story follows them. I think it has potential actually, and I’m gonna work on it. We also brainstormed about the novel I hope to have written before too long, and Brian gave me some sweet ideas about it so yeah, what up.
Brian: For our other best ideas check out our current poll. So we rolled into Minneapolis after dark and met our first host, Abby, at a bar. We had a couple local brews and I ordered a boar shepherds pie because I don’t think I’ve ever had boar before. It was great, and I ate a big plate of Brussels sprouts on the side, mom. By this time, and I think I speak for both of us, the awesomeness of Madison was catching up to us. Abby suggested that we pop in a movie. Sounds good. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended edition? Wow, good luck to both of us. To even my own surprise, I survived it while Nick succumbed to road fatigue.
Nick: I was so… sleepy…. Brian and… Nick… (yawn) out…
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