| end of the road |

I've read an obscene amount of books and magazines and children's escapist fiction in the last 24 hours. On the plus side, I am home.

My last leg was uneventful. I waited at the Boston terminal until it was close to the ticketing time to purchase my bus ticket home. I chose the Chinatown bus company with less people on the line so I could be on an emptier bus. (which was Lucky Star Bus Company)

Some observations:

* Bus company has a rest stop at one of those Asian buffets. ("China Buffet" or something...) I ran off to get stuff from the supermarket next door.

* The majority of the Chinatown bus was not Asian.

* The bathroom on the bus was surprisingly clean and didn't smell.

* Good reading lights. And it's nice to be carrying a sleeping bag with you, especially if the bus is freezing (although I overheard the drivers talking to one another in Mandarin about how the other buses are breaking down and their A/Cs barely work.

Great experience, and I read and I read until I got home, and then read some more before going to sleep, and then some more this morning. Maybe my mind is filled with the echoes of this journey, or I needed to fill a newly found void after three weeks with constant companions.


anyway, reflections on the road later. I'm sleepy, can't write, and should be off to bed. Plus I'm getting sappy.

I miss you.

c=c

Separation

All too soon, we have come to the end of our epic journey. (...and to annoy Howie: I hope you all have also enjoyed this journey. Thanks to the faithful readers who have journeyed with us.) ;-) Hee hee.

We reached our final destination in one piece and have now parted ways, at least for now. It was a long, lonely flight back. I was watching the in-flight location tracker screen. It was sad to see the plane image crossing over all the places we went. It felt like I was going backwards. (No! It took us 3 weeks to get all the way to Boston, all that effort...gone in 6 hours)

Until we meet again...

Pictures finally

Massive picture post before heading off to the craziness of Boston and the beginning of some fond farewells. Over 1,000 pictures to sort through. Here are some of the ones you haven't seen yet, but have probably read about elsewhere on the blog.

(The Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone - 5-story log cabin-style building)
(Jerry and Lisa dancing it up on the lobby floor)
(Sniffles of farewell to Jerry in Denver)(World's largest ketchup bottle in Collinsville, IL just out of St. Louis)(Us with Mr. Henry at his rabbit farm)
(Ted outside of Cozy Inn - birthplace of the corn dog aka "the cozy dog")
(Us in the Lincoln kitchen)
(In a German u-boat kitchen. There was clearly a photography theme going on here with us and kitchens)(At the end of our tour)(The U-Boat from the outside)
(Howie had issues with the accessibility of the content for some of the exhibits at the Museum of Science and Industry. Take this AIDS exhibit for example, there's a stack of "ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES" )(Ted and Howie checking out their reflection in the Clouds Gate sculpture in Millenium Park, Chicago, IL)
(Hehe...silliness)
(Pucker up, Bryan)(Weirdos...)
(FIC-IL!)
(Howie's aunt's place in Cleveland. They had a beautiful house and garden.)
(What did the snail say while riding on the turtle's back? Wheee!!!!!)
(The World's Largest Crayon)
(Multicultural markers: So children "can more accurately color themselves")
(Attached to the Crayola museum was a museum about canals and trains. We decided to hitch a ride)
(Liberty Bell)
(Chilling with Ben Franklin at UPenn.)(Niagara Falls)
(on the border between the US and Canada)
(Ponchos are for wimps)
(17 days together and I think the guys were clearly ready to kill each other. Just letting out some steam.)(Yay circle pictures. No clue what Ted's doing.)
(Attempted prototyping for a new style of dance shoes)(Lincoln Center, NYC. Midsummer Night's Swing)(Museum of Natural History. Howie is doing one of his many dinosaur impressions)(Look who we ran into at the Met. Our first random meeting with a person we knew)

Good times in NY. Last leg tomorrow.

Days 17 to 21

Brief highlights:
- Crayola factory (easton, PA) - amazing marketing machine and corporate brainwashing for little kids and their parents. It was great
- Couple hours in Philly to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall
- Lisa had fantastic dinner with a friend from high school and the first separation from the boys in 17 days
- The boys went to Geno's to try a philly cheesesteak and were extremely underwhelmed and disappointed
- sweltering hot weather
- arrival in NYC
- slept until 12:30 pm
- met Howie's family who lives across the street
- rode the subways and bus
- Museum of Natural History (met up with Susie briefly)
- sprinted through The Met for half an hour before closing (saw Julie Yen working at the info desk)
- Ate in Chinatown and Flushing
- Ted slept over at Nate's house on Day 19.
- Had our first full separation for the first time in 20 days when Howie had lunch with his cousin, Lisa had lunch with a friend, and Ted worked in the NY Public Library.
- Watched Jurassic Park on Laser disc
- 3 of us fell asleep together on a full-size mattress
- 2 thunderstorms in 3 days

Days 12 to 16

Been delinquent on the blogging for the past few days.

Reporting in from Scranton, PA onroute to Philly. More incoherent than usual, seeing as it's 3 am.

Day 12. Northbrook, IL to Elk Grove Village, IL
Museum of Science and Industry. German U-boat. Hokey animatronics. Poor Daniel, I think he thought we were crazy. First home-cooked meal our whole trip (first Asian food too). Stayed at Blung's house. (Daniel and Bryan - Your parents are so nice...wow, thanks so much guys.)

Day 13. Elk Grove Village and downtown Chicago.
Woke up late. Mom cooked breakfast. Lunch at Joy Yee's in Chinatown. Figured out what Mickey and Daniel were raving about. Pretty good food, way too many choices, fresh fruit drinks, beautiful presentation. Dropped Bryan's HS friend off at the Art Institute and walked around Millenium Park. Really really awesome jellybean structure. (Pictures later at a more reasonable hour). Ted drove us through 2 hours of traffic. Chilled at Bryan's, did laundry (yay!) and watched "13 Conversations about One Thing" It was a pretty good movie, one of those discussion, thought-provoking indie films.

Day 14: Elk Grove to Chagrin Falls, OH
Woke up late, again. Said our farewells to Bryan (sad...) and headed out toward the Cleveland area, where Howie's aunt lives. Sat in 2 hours of noon-time downtown Chicago traffic (???). Drove through an enormous rainstorm and finally arrived around 8 pm.

Day 15: Chagrin Falls, OH to Grand Island, NY
Left late, again (it was really nice to get breakfast each of these "late" days...we just took longer to get on the road). Weather was clearing up for a day in Niagara Falls. Stopped for a couple hours to swim in Lake Erie. We swam in one of the Great Lakes! Neat! The boys didn't wnat to get in the water at first. Howie: Ahh!! Ahhh!! Cold! It's lakewater! Ted: I don't have clothes! I don't want to go in!! Lots of wrestling and splashing. The bottom of the lake is sandy! I was expecting it to be rocky.
Got in about 10-ish to a KOA campground on Grand Island (about 5 miles away from Niagara Falls). They had hot showers and they were showing Madagascar on a big screen. Ted remarked that it felt like a summer retreat, not a campground.

Day 16: Grand Island, NY to Scranton, PA
Got up early (8:30 am) to head to Niagara Falls. Got really soaking wet, not once, but twice. It was awesome. Everyone was prepared with our synthetic clothing today. The park gave everyone plastic ponchos, but we decided it was more fun to do things without it. Went on a boat ride around the Lower Gorge (Maid of the Mist). Then took a hike around the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls, definitely got drenched by the falls.
Walked over to Canada. View of the falls is far superior. Managed to get through and back, even though I forgot to bring my passport. Contingency plan if not: "Bye Lisa, have a nice life in Canada" (thanks, guys).
Drove a lot late at night and arrived here about 2 am. Howie's a trooper for driving the last 2 or 3 hours with Ted and I completely asleep.

Bedtime now. 3:30 am. Expecting to be in NYC tomorrow. =)

hi there we are blogging from cell phone at a campground 5 miles south of niagara falls. the campground was $38 but everything is expensive here. the picture is from buffalo, where we ate at the bar where buffalo wings were invented. anyway we are well again. chicago was awesome but more to come when we get internet .

Showers

Here in a northern suburb of Chicago. We've also been following a massive rainstorm across the country, ever since Denver. Got hit by rain in almost every town since. Were a bit worried along the road to Chicago because it was coming down like crazy. But, this morning, the sun is out. It's so cheery.

As Howie said, at Daniel's house, we can finally shower and sleep in a real house. However, I think I'm completely out of clean clothes. The database engineer's wife whom we met in Yellowstone told us how she sometimes has to travel with her husband and his friends (commiserating with me and my situation). She described the process of rewearing a shirt as "going over to the dark side." Still resisting. I've been laughing at Ted, mostly, because well...he's been wearing shirts for few too many days. ;-) all love, ted. All love. (They don't smell...too bad...yet)

Off to play in the Windy City.

| insomniac |

This is Howard, reporting in for Road247.

EVERYONE is asleep, and for some reason I'm not tired. I'm checking in from Daniel Lee's house in Chicago, whose family is nice enough to host us for a night. (They are *SO* nice to be having us here... owe them big) Ted's pointed out that it's been 12 days since we've been in a house, and it sure is nice to settle down for a bit. I'm glad we're spending a few days in Chicago, it's hard to be on the road all the time!

We woke up late, especially because Ted is sick, and Lisa and I are a bit tired too. My knee is also kinda busted; it's my wushu landing knee that's given me trouble ever since, and I managed to bang it yesterday on some metal structure at the City Museum.

So we headed out around 11ish, which is the latest we've ever done, and picked up old Route 66. Our stops included:

* The world's largest ketchup bottle.
* Henry's place-- this was awesome. The guy raises rabbits, and is a huge Route 66 aficionado. So we get in and he chats it up like crazy with us, and gets his rabbit to autograph some posters. Pretty crazy.
* An old diner thing, good food, but wasn't that special
* Abraham Lincoln's old home-- that was pretty cool.
* Cozy Dogs- birthplace of the corn dog. Very yummy and funky looking.
* an dthen it was already 5, s owe decide to truck it to Chicago and skip the rest.
* and Funks Grove Sirup company... sirup is spelled sirup to indicate that it's 100% pure, apparently. tastes really good, it's lighter than traditional maple syrup and not as sweet, but has this really awesome maple taste to it. Even better was the fact that we called way past six to ask if they were open, and she's like "Well... we could just open up for you" So we drive over and we're greeted by Mrs. Funk herself, a really nice lady with white hair and an awesome dog.

So we did get our kicks (however briefly) on old Route 66. I don't fully understand the affinity for this route, because it is *just* an old road. I love the whole mythology of it all, but like Jerry pointed out over the phone, you can't help feeling that maybe it is outdated and a rapidly fading dream.

Speaking of dreams, I should be sleeping. Off I go.

| sketch 2 |

To put the previous post in perspective, Lisa is from Hawaii. =) The town wasn't exactly the nicest, but it wasn't worse than say, Flushing, Queens. The large box was being carried in full view of a police car, and the staircases just had long turns (Ted was kidding in that quote). She's right in that we are being careful-- but judging from the fact that most of the housekeepng staff didn't necessarily speak English, I wasn't too worried about the door opening this morning. As a New Yorker I'm being super cautious about these things, so don't worry too much; we're doing our best to watch out.


Today we spent a good part of our day just chilling with jerry at the airport, and thoroughly embarassing him as he went through the security check-points (the NSA guys shot us some looks). After the shock from the see-you-laters, we spent some time in downtown Denver, where I walked around and got my hair cut and glasses fixed and minor shopping, and Barnes and Noble for some books.


We then started driving across Kansas, which is remarkably flat, and we saw some neat thunderstorms. We're now in Hays, Kansas, and onwards from here.

Off to bed! Will upload pictures tomorrow.

-HC

Sketch

Day 8. 9:50 am. Denver, CO

We're staying at a Ramada Inn in downtown Denver. Not to knock the city, but this is a pretty sketchy part of town. Coming back from dinner, we saw at least 5 police cars and a couple of 20-ish year old boys running across the street carrying a large box. Not to mention the sirens outside of our window, the smell of pot in the hall, and the staircases where Ted said "you kind of expect to come around the corner and find someone shooting up."

Thank God for the security bolty thing on the door. Someone tried to come in this morning while we were sleeping. Howie and Ted are still sleeping like rocks. I would have thought it was housekeeping, but no one actually said "housekeeping." I bolted awake and got out of bed to find the door ajar. Thanks mom, I now understand why you put the suitcase holder with the suitcase on it in front of the door. So, I'm awake, thoroughly freaked out and can't sleep.

It's really sad that we'll have to say goodbye to Jerry at this point in the journey. Perhaps more so for the guys, since they'll actually be parting ways for a while. I'll be seeing Jerry again fairly soon. I liked the advice a wise woman told me "Don't be sad. Get over there and make some more good memories. Otherwise, all you'll remember is that you were sad."

Day 7 - | precious cargo |

Day 7
Mileage: 58800 (8 AM)
Location: Thermopolis, WY -> Denver, Colorado


We woke up this morning... rather, we slept through three sets of alarms this morning. Jerry kept on waking up to turn them off [I slept through them all too - jerry], and Ted, Lisa, and I slept like rocks. I think we were just plain beat, and swimming in the sulphur springs really made the sleep.

After packing up, we headed out to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, where we stopped to view the exhibits and got a tour of the dinosaur dig site out there. It was pretty neat being out on the dig site, and I now have a much better idea of how the process of paleontology works. The exhibits themselves were a bit underwhelming (the Museum of Natural History has spoiled me), and the tour was really so-so and filled with suspect science. The tour guide went as far as to claim that the Rockies were formed by a meteor collision. Go figure. Lisa pointed out that we're probably a bit overeducated at this point for these tours-- I know this sounds obnoxious, but we realized that we have 7.5 degrees between the four of us. Weird, isn't it? I don't feel like I deserve mine.


Heading out from the Dinosaur center, we trucked it out to Yellowstone Drug Store in Shoshoni. The drug store was exactly how I imagined middle town America to be like. Shoshoni is a tiny, tiny town, and the Drugstore looks as if it came from the 60s. A long soda fountain bar shined in a corner, behind which burgers are flipped and shakes are swirled. Kitschy merchandise is all over, scattered between antiques and random general-store goods. The entire place felt like a cross between a Chinatown shop and an antique dealer.

We then headed for the long drive towards Denver. A short stop to take a picture with the world's largest Jackalope in Douglas, Wyoming. The jackalope is part of an American mythology that I never heard of-- a jackrabbit crossed with an antelope. Go figure. [Ted: The jackalope stars in "Boundin'", an animated short by Pixar]


And a short stop in Cheyenne, which really isn't worth mentioning. Sorry Wyoming.


Anyway, I'm pretty tired and need to get some sleep. Tomorrow we're dropping off very precious cargo, as Jerry is flying out of Denver and back to Stanford again. I know we'll see him again in the future, but right now, the mile-high rains of Denver mirrors my anticipations for tomorrow.

Ted adds:
Dinner tonight was at Rock Bottom Brewery, where, as usual, we ate too much. Good and rich food. We've all been noticing it in the past few days: the Americana Diet is not good for health. We've had giant hamburgers, heaps of french fries, ribs, pork chops... sort of explains why there are t-shirts for sale with slogans like "Fat people are harder to kidnap." Hopefully in the next few days my body will see some real vegetables again.

I like downtown Denver. It's similar to Santa Monica's Third St. Promenade, another pedestrian road. Denver's downtown is on 16th St, and runs about a mile from end to end. It reminded me of something I read about the renaissance of American downtowns, some sort of rebellion against one-stop big-box stores sprawled over miles of road. Unfortunately in Denver, almost only thing to do late at night is to go clubbing. We found ourselves at ESPNZone where we played air hockey and embarassed ourselves trying to play the basketball games.

In other news, I committed to sign a lease for housing in Cambridge tonight. I'll be living in East Cambridge, between Central and Kendall Squares. That starts September 1st; until then, I'll be staying with some FiCS alumni in the same area. Signing a lease makes this feel so concrete....

After sending Jerry off at the airport, we may stay in Denver one more night, then begin the drive toward Chicago. I'm not good with goodbyes.

I tend to try to stretch out goodbyes, and I think I've just about stretched the one coming tomorrow as much as I can. It takes some time for me to process things, so I think I'm going to need to wait till after I get back to CA to sort things out.

But right up front, this has been a wonderful week traveling with Ted, Howie, and Lisa. I'm really thankful to have spent these past few days with them (and hope that I was decent company).

Ted, Howie, Lisa, have a safe trip to Chicago and then on to your destinations. Already starting to miss you.

- jerry