so put me on a highway, and show me a sign

surviving the wilderness, december 19-21

2008-12-21T18:59:00.000-08:00

so i've recently been reminded that i do indeed have a blog (noun) and i should should indeed blog (verb). here goes.

you may be wondering about the title of this particular post - it comes from a comment from kate, in passing, wishing us a good night and best wishes to "survive the wilderness... of (temporary) bedding and christmas foliage" in her living room. it seemed pretty appropriate for this trip - it is a bit of an adventure into the wilderness of my life until about 6 months ago.

so it's not that i'm really concerned about survival, exactly - i am so so happy to reconnect with friends i haven't seen in so many months! - but it does add a sense of the adventure that the past week, and this trip back east, has been. we all know about the ridiculous weather that seattle has been experiencing in the last week - ice and snow and ice and ice and snow and ice and snow and more snow and what do you mean you don't DE-ICE OR PLOW?! ahem - so there were some questions about whether i'd be able to get out of the city as planned. thankfully, my plane managed to squeak through between all of the storms - left seattle on time friday night, arrived an HOUR EARLY to JFK due to a ridiculous tailwind but after the bulk of friday's storm, sat on the tarmack for a bit while we waited for understaffed airline workers to load our bags, waited for clearance to leave, waited and circled for clearance to land at logan, and made it in only about an hour late saturday morning. you know, in the midst of the next round of snow. phew.

but i made it! josh and emma whisked me off to a lovely lunch in cambridge, then i hiked the red line back to dorchester to good ol' romsey street for some holiday cheer :) kate and david hosted a fabulous dinner party with friends and food and wine and monster cookies and dirty martinis and scattergories and late-night love, actually. it was pretty awesome. and ridiculously cute.

then, this morning, we treated ourselves to a wellesley brunch at zaftigs. oh, the potato pancakes. oh, the challah french toast. oh, so good.

after a bit of a wander around coolidge corner, i revisited cleveland circle to meet up with foodie buddy jon wong and josh and emma at cityside grill. josh tried to heckle steelers fans. i tried to discourage such behavior, not just because i have no ill-will toward steelers fans, but also because i happened to be between josh and said steelers fans. it was a dangerous position. but awesome to see jon and josh and emma again!

awesome to be back in boston in general, actually. and awesome to know that while, yes, this is known and familiar and i do love boston... this isn't my home anymore. it's a familiar wilderness, but it's not mine anymore. and that's ok.

welcome home, bean.

2008-10-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

so, as of about saturday, october 18 - i am officially a resident of the state of washington. i have a license. i have registered to vote. i have a registered vehicle.

i have an apartment.

i have a kitten, callie.

(or, as she is sometimes known, booger.)

i am home :)

at the end of the rainbow...

2008-09-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

(to celebrate and commemorate my new job, jen and JR whisk me to see pretty rainbows at snoqualmie falls.)

i almost forgot!

2008-08-05T23:03:00.001-07:00

meet spike-o. he's a big flirt.

and my roommate. we share a bathroom, too.

he's pretty great.

(i did appreciate his body heat in bed much more in winter, though.)

my first weekend in seattle!

2008-08-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

clearly, after unloading maddie, finding her an appropriate parking spot, and catching up with skratty and keith, it was TIME TO CELEBRATE!

bean has arrived!

oh, a note: now that i have arrived in seattle, i am now officially bean. when skratty and i lived in berkeley, i claimed to be the unnicknameable roommate and challenged sara (skratty) and kate (tool) to find a nickname for me. (it's true, i'm ridiculously hard to nickname.) sara decided on 00stringbean. later, bean. keith calls me beanus. it's pretty great.

anyway, for my first dinner as an official seattle-ite, we go to my faaaavorite brunch place in capitol hill - coastal kitchen. they have a rotating menu, and they just started veracruz this week - so, clearly, that means we must go. YES. much amazingness was consumed. mostly in the form of fish (shrimp for me, scallops for skratty), though keith was old school and went with the burger. all was fabulous.

after a brief detour to the airport to drop off skratty's dad, we continued our celebration at tini bigs, where the martinis are anything but teensy. mmmm. skratty and i do like our martinis.

skratty decided to try the jello-tini. it was jellolicious.

i think i'm wearing keith's glasses.

we look less crazy in this one.

oh, and at some point we went to twice told tales (one of TWO amazing used bookstores within like 5 feet of the goodzok household), and skratty found...

i find this way too amusing.

day two: wellesley, wellesley...

saturday's adventures included a trip to mercer island for a LOVELY picnic with wellesley women! and their adorable children. among skratty's extracurricular activities, she is the alumnae admissions representative for the wellesley club of washington. that's right. she's a rockstar. so less than 24 hours after moving to seattle, i'm already workin' those wellesley connections. and enjoying brown sugar shortbread puffs (aka AMAZINGNESS), scrumptious quinoa salad, and other lovely picnicy foodstuffs. there was some grilling of the wisdom of moving to a new city in today's rather lackluster economy, but most of the alums were quite supportive and offered lots of advice for the jobsearch. plus, we got to see some blue angels. and that was cool.

awww...

skratty found a playground!

it's harder when you're bigger than skratty-sized.

LATER THAT EVENING...

i love skratty's eyes.

day three: brunch! and fishes!

a weekend in seattle is not complete without some sort of exciting brunch! rather than another trip to veracruz at coastal kitchen (mmmm. goat cheese scrambles. mmmmm.), this weekend brunch was even BETTER! stu hosted a fantastic pot-luck brunch of fruit and muffins (skratty's lemon poppyseed and blueberry coffee cake. oh so good.) and pancakes and cinnamon buns and more fruit and eggs and magical single-serve coffee and it was just lovely. and even more lovely because skratty has such great friends. i'd met most everyone over the last couple trips out here, and had heard stories or seen facebook photos of just about everyone else - and it was so, so nice to be welcomed to seattle by new friends. plus, like skratty, they are hilarious and i enjoy them immensely.

since it was such a lovely day, after running some errands (costco! woot!), we went up to the locks near ballard to watch the salmon jumping up their little salmon jumping ladders.

sadly, we did not see many jumping - they're kind of big. and apparently lazy. just look at these fellas!

look! i found a fun lifty bridge!

and, as is traditional now, we found more funky statues

oooh, artsy.

what a fantastic welcome to seattle. huuuuuge thanks to skratty and keith (who shall be nicknamed soon. he doesn't like the one we came up with) for being so awesome and amazing and making me feel so loved and not crazy at all. love you both!

destination reached!

2008-08-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

i made it to seattle!

*cheers*

i shall share more from the road into seattle and the arrival celebration with the goodzoks last night, but again know that maddie has safely brought me from one side of I-90 to the other, skratty and keith are taking amazing care of me, and i am wonderously happy to be home again. even if it included dealing with sea week friday traffic for hours and hours yesterday afternoon.

but i made it!

more later, i promise :)

spokane to seattle! miles 3330ish to 3610ish!

2008-08-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

last day. i knew it wouldn't be a bad driving day - i'd taken the bus from spokane to seattle in december, and, well. if i could survive eastern washington in the middle of winter, eastern washington in the first day of august would be totally doable. plus, by this point, 280 miles is nuthin'. walk in the park. or, well, drive.

and it was like a park! so pretty!

it kind of looked like this. a lot.

then i found another scenic overlook! washington's another good state to trust for the overlooks.

the wildflowers are a bit, um, dry.

eventually, the mountains came into view...

now, the last time that i saw these mountains, it was the very end of december. there'd been no snow the whole way, and actually gorgeously sunny in wenatchee. then we hit the mountains, and we're soon at the side of the road watching the driver put chains on the greyhound bus. white out conditions. we couldn't take one of the passes because they were doing avalanche control. yeah.

this time, it was much prettier. maddie continued her rockstarness all the way up and through the mountains and down the other side! by this point, sara had called to tell me that the blue angles' practice had closed the I-90 bridge from 12:30-2:40, so i might have to take the other bridge into seattle. i figured i'd just pull off at one of the exits before the bridge, and then i'd just get back on I-90 after the bridge opened. good plan, right?

well. not quite, as i didn't actually know the last exit before the bridge (the other side of mercer island, it was kind of confusing), and, well. i ended up stopped on the bridge for about 20 minutes before they reopened it. thankfully, it was only about 20 minutes, and it was a lovely time to stop and do some crosswords.

seriously, i did crosswords. on the highway.

but then the bridge opened, and the day was glorious, and i was on my way into seattle! all the way to I-5. where it was friday afternoon traffic on sea week. hmmm.

there was some traffic. but it was stopped when i took the picture this time :)

skratty's exit was only a couple down the road, and by about 3:30 skratty and i were unloading maddie in our new home!

*phew* made it.

missoula to spokane. miles 3070 to 3330ish.

2008-07-31T22:39:00.004-07:00

up again fairy early this morning, i decided to stop by the university again to wander around a bit -and make the obligatory stop at the university bookstore for postcards. (i actually hadn't found postcards anywhere else yesterday - i knew they'd have some there, among other things.)

oooh, i found a grizzly!

as i was leaving, i took another look at the map and noticed lolo hot springs about 30 miles outside of missoula - lolo pass is right on the border of idaho and montana, and was one of the passes taken by lewis and clark. i'd heard of the hot springs, though, and thought - it's been a long trip! i deserve to sit in hot springs for a bit, right? right.

well, in theory, that's a great idea. the hot springs themselves, though, not so impressive. or they're hiding the impressive part - the only hot springs i found was more like a cement community pool fed by natural springs rather than, well, whatever pools are normally filled with. (i don't like to think about that, generally.) in any case, i wasn't particularly keen on giving money to someone to let me sit in their concrete pool at the side of the road - where's my secluded natural spring surrounded by trees and rocks and pretty? ah well. it was a pretty drive.

a couple hours later, in coeur d'alene, i stop to sit in the sun for a bit on the beach... i wanted to go parasailing, but they were booked for the rest of the day. booo. another time.

instead, i tried a "moose dog". that's right. rochester gave me a carrot hot - grilled carrot in a hot dog bun - coeur d'alene gives me the moose dog, a hot dog with grilled peppers and onions and spicy mustard and relish and... cream cheese? i was intrigued. they couldn't be serious.

they were.

and it was actually pretty good. who would've guessed?

only another half hour or so to spokane, when it was time to settle for the night... as i was checking in, another hotel patron happened to see that i was from massachusetts, and we discovered that we're both moving to seattle from boston! yay for new friends and new cities and what a fabulous way to spend a last evening before arriving in a new city.

tomorrow, seattle. and a new home.

bozeman to missoula. miles 2867 to 3070ish.

2008-07-31T21:56:00.005-07:00

despite the hours of driving, wandering around, biking, and blogging that fill my day, i still manage to wake up ridiculously early in the morning. part of this waking up early, i think, has to do with the uncertainty of my driving plan over the last couple days - i still had no definite plan, other than getting to missoula and making a stop at the big sky brewing company while in town. would i continue on up to kalispell and glacier national park? would i stay in missoula? would i go to kalispell for the night and stop in glacier in the morning? would i just sit in my car and pull my hat down and avoid making any decision at all? gah.

in any case, i was up fairly early so i figured i'd just get on the road again toward missoula. the first big stop after bozeman turned out to be butte - a town i'd seen on the map, and probably heard mentioned by my mother a couple times, but i had no real sense of what there was to see, of the history of the town. it was time to stop and fill up the water bottle and stretch my legs, anyway, so i figured i'd at least drive through town - directions to a historic downtown seemed promising, right? right. i also had some spotty cell phone coverage by this point, so i quickly checked in with my mother - the conversation went something like this:

me: so i made it out of bozeman alive. ps it was a lot prettier than i expected! anything interesting in butte?
linda: well... you could go see the berkeley mining pit. i think it's supposed to be one of the biggest copper mines in the country.
me: oh... is that what that big hole in the mountain is? huh. that makes sense.

that whole cliff face? yeah, that's the berkeley pit.

(oh, erica.)

so i ended up driving into town and getting a bit lost, and finding myself at the pit. for $2, you can go through the side of the mountain to a viewing platform in the pit. and learn something about the history of mining in southwestern montana. turns out, butte was a big mining town. who knew?

look! a waterfall!

well, perhaps the people who put all these big drilling and milling equipment all over the city.

erica, of course, finds the one that's been turned into the centerpiece of a garden :)

after leaving butte, i'm back on I-90 headed toward missoula. there are more mountains.

by the time i got to missoula, made my stop at the big sky brewing company - home of moose drool, which ashley's father introduced me to last christmas, and is a pretty fabulous beer - it was decision time: stay in missoula and hang out? or push ahead and go on a couple hours north to kalispell and glacier? after much wandering and contemplating, i decide to stay in missoula and relax rather than exhaust myself trying to get up to glacier only to turn around the next day. also, missoula's a fun town - and has a pretty extensive bike path system, and i was hankering for another bike ride.

i do so love riding along rivers.

missoula also happens to be home of the university of montana - in honor of the university, there is a giant 'M' on the side of the hill behind the university.

turns out there's a path that you can hike up to the M. supposedly great views of the valley and town and everything. i like outlooks. i like hiking. i'm totally up for it. right?

right. also turns out that this path is a bit under a mile and a half long, consists of 13 switchbacks, and climbs 620 vertical feet. yeah. you feel that one.

that's the path along the right there.

but the views are totally worth it.

oh, and while biking around looking for a grocery store for dinner... skratty dear, this is for you:

(i laughed. a lot.)

yellowstone to bozeman, pt. 2.

2008-07-29T21:57:00.005-07:00

(had to split this into another post - firefox was not pleased with me.)

part four: northeastern loop

and sunrise! generally i'm a sunset gal, but, well. just look at that.

crazy extinct volcanic cone. or, random large monolith.

there's a grizzly in this field, i promise.

waterfall #1 of the day. and pretty early-morning light.

yup, another pretty ravine. and the looking down view :)

for posterity.

... fallen rock zone?

snow? was it really that cold?
nope, that's actually sulfur. or one of those thermal ingredients.

more thermal stuff. mammoth thermal area.

danger! do not approach elk!
(incidentally, when you take hwy-89 north out of gardiner, there's a similar sign warning you that there will be wildlife in the road for the next 51 miles.
yeah. welcome to montana :)

goodbye, yellowstone!

since i hadn't slept terribly well in the car last night, i decided to give myself an easy driving day - plus, by the time i got to bozeman, it looked like it was going to start raining, and i didn't particularly want to drive in the rain. after i found myself some lodging, i unracked the bike and took a ride down main street to get a sense of downtown bozeman. sadly, i'm just missing their sweet pea festival (sweet pea! how cute! lots of signs and ads telling you to buy things for your sweet pea. awwww.) - but i did appreciate the clever sidewalk chalkings! (and also had several flashbacks to proper chalking procedures and ettiquete from wellesley - hahahaha.)

after a lovely afternoon in bozeman (including organic coffee and a much-needed stop for catching up on my reading), i decided to head out again and check out that park near my motel... and found a path leading up behind the city to a rather breathtaking outlook. when i'd talked to my mother earlier, she asked if bozeman was as beautiful as she remembered - and, well. it was nice enough, i suppose, and clearly there were mountains around, which was extra points - but i had no clue...

and tomorrow? on to missoula - and beyond?

greybull to yellowstone to bozeman. miles 2567 to 2867ish.

2008-07-29T20:24:00.008-07:00

ok, so clearly this one is going to be a long post. get ready.

the drive from greybull to yellowstone continued along scenic hwy 16 through cody, wy. clearly, i had to stop in cody for some coffee (which i proceeded to spill all over myself while walking down the main street), a couple wyoming souveniers, and some seriously gorgeous views. for such a, well, square and rather unknown state - at least to me - wyoming has some of the most varied scenery i've seen. plains to mountains to desert and tumbleweeds back to mountains and scrub and rivers and lakes and grasslands and geisers and desert again. whoa.

also, i had a very special moment when i realized that cody, wy, is named after buffalo bill. cody. yeah. all together now: oh, erica. also, cody apparently has a rodeo pretty much every night of the summer. how cool is that?

back on the road, i was surprised to stop almost immediately out of the city - who could pass up a viewing of the buffalo bill cody dam?

it's about another hour from cody to the east entrance of yellowstone... lots of farms. and crazy rocky outcroppings. like chimney rock!

see, it really does look like a chimney.

just before lunchtime, i made it to yellowstone! the roads in the park basically follow a central circle in the middle of the park with an eastern, southern, western, and two northern entrances. i entered on the eastern side, and followed the central circle counter clockwise - first along the lake, then across to old faithful, then back up and around the main circle on a hunt for a campsite. but that will come later.

a quick note on all of these pictures: there are so, so many pictures i COULD have taken - probably many of them better than those i did - but i was fairly limited by the proximity of the views to turnouts where i could stop the car and the traffic behind me (and whether i could actually turn). but here's at least an idea.

part one: the lake route

clearly, this route is particularly appealing as it consists mainly of two of my favorite scenic views: lakes, and mountains. and lakes and mountains.

and a buffalo! or bison. well, one of the two.

interesting fact about erica:
i really, really love wild flowers. especially wild flowers that grow in unexpected places.

then we crossed the continental divide!

and then TRAGEDY hit:

i was intrigued by these yellow lilypad-like flowers on the pond right at the top of the continental divide. i walked to the pond for further study (and pictures) and was VICIOUSLY attacked by a yellowstone yellowjacket. or, well, some type of very angry bee. and it stung me. under my arm. my very first bee sting! it was red and stinging and ouch. so when i got to the clinic at old faithful, i stopped in to make sure there wasn't anything special i should do - the nurse looked at me, laughed, and told me that if one hypothetically was stung by a bee, as long as they're breathing, they're fine. but she couldn't give advice without admiting the patient to the clinic. by that point, the swelling had gone down, and i was breathing, so i went to wait to explore geiserland.

apparently, bees are also attracted to these pretty flowers.

pretty waterfall! also, for those of you like my father who do not like to look over the edge into ravines... i included a shot of the ravine floor, too :)
(haha, dad - remember when you took me to niagara falls? prob'ly not nearly as funny to you as it was (and is) to me.)

part two: geiserland

also known as, how many people can we fit on this boardwalk to watch old faithful? answer: zillions. but rather than sitting with the zillions of other on-lookers, i decided to walk around one of the smaller of the boardwalks in geiserland.

remember what i said about wildflowers in unexpected places? how cool is this?

and, what you've all been waiting for... old faithful.

who faithfully did go off when predicted.

part three: hunt for camping. geiserland to mammoth to gardiner.

so i decided that since i'd only seen half the park so far - and i wasn't quite ready to leave yet - i'd just camp in the park overnight, get up early to drive around the rest of the loop, and i could be on my way to montana by afternoon. in theory, this was a great plan. in reality, by 6:30 all of the campsites in the entire park were booked. so that left me two options: go to gardiner and get a motel room, or camp as planned in the national forestry campground in gardiner. since i was already mentally prepared to sleep in my car, and i didn't want to deal with hunting a motel room in very full motels, i chose option two.

but first, i had to drive from old faithful all the way to the northern entrance at mammoth and gardiner. along the way, i saw more geisers, some elk, deer, a grizzly(!), pretty almost-sunsets, and lots of campers who'd stolen my campsite :p

elks!

there is a grizzly in there... he's a bit far away, but i was kind of ok with that.

and some pretty sunsets :)

oh! and as i left the park, i also almost hit a baby elk. thankfully (for maddie, as well as the baby elk), i did not hit it. but i was also flustered enough and there was traffic behind me so i did not get to stop and take a picture. it was cute, though.

wall to greybull. miles 2117 to 2567.ish.

2008-07-27T22:07:00.005-07:00

before i forget - can you even imagine living in this house? welcome to the badlands.

first stop after wall: mount rushmore!

so. crowded. impressive, and worth it, but be prepared for crowds. lots and lots of crowds. keystone, south dakota (the closest town to rushmore) is also ridiculously crowded on the last sunday of july. who would've guessed?

art alley! definitely one of the cooler parts of rapid city.

well, probably those who knew that next week is the sturgis bike rally.

in any case, by the time i found a parking spot, waded through tourists and picture-takers to take my own pictures, wandered around the sculpture studio, and told many "most bad-ass president" jokes to myself, it was lunch time and i was already behind schedule. no visits to the reptile palace or crazy horse monument for ericaleigh. the cosmos mystery attraction tempted me, momentarily, but i resisted and quickly got myself back on I-90 headed toward wyoming!

by time i got to wyoming and the info center near sundance, it was time to start thinking about which direction i should go next: stay on I-90 up to billings, before heading back down to yellowstone? or head straight across wyoming on smaller, less populated roads. i'd originally wanted to go across wyoming, but wasn't convinced - i'm by myself, in a veryvery full car. do i want to put myself in places that have little cell access and not many people around? well, after a chat with the info lady, she convinced me to take hwy 16 west across wyoming. apparently, it's one of the most scenic routes in the country - and the easiest of the cross-wyoming routes to yellowstone.

ok, so there were those magic words again - scenic route! and, boy, they aren't kidding. they're not kidding about those mountains, either - poor maddie DEFINITELY had a workout today. interesting fact about maddie: she has a semi-automatic transmission, so if you want, you can manually tell the transmission when to change gears. this means you have to see what gear you're in- so there's a little number on the dash that i generally ignore. now, i don't ever use this particular feature - but when you're climbing the big horn mountains in a very full car, and maddie suddenly jumps to 2nd gear, oh boy. that was unexpected. i have a feeling i have a couple days of frantically watching the little gear number and praying that maddie won't hate me too much when we get to seattle.

oh, and here's the pretty from big horn national forest:

you can JUST see the mountains...

some other thoughts from today's drive:

1. western south dakota and eastern wyoming are the south australia of the united states. seriously.

2. beware the butterflies in south dakota. most people probably fear collisions with other, larger, more toothy wildlife, but i've hit at least a dozen butterflies in the last two days. they stick to the windshield and get caught in the wipers. it's super sad. so beware the butterflies.

3. there's a hell of a lot of bugs in general - many of them are squashed on the front of my car, but all the rest of them i think are out to get me. i think a couple of them managed to steal into the car and had a very, very delicious afternoon of feasting on my legs. i hope they are in pain from their binge.

woodbury to wall. miles 1557-2117ish.

2008-07-27T21:11:00.006-07:00

(i'm so going to be better about posting on time. or more on time. really!)

well, i didn't quite make it as far across south dakota as i'd hoped - i started a bit later than i should have, probably, and i AM the most distractable person i know. this has continued to prove true throughout the drive across south dakota. minnesota was fairly familiar, as i'd already driven down to faribault, and once i re-joined I-90, i was pretty comfortable driving through the fields and farms and pretty of south-western minnesota. plus, wind mills!

and my very first wall drug sign. i was so excited.

for those of you who've never heard of wall drug, it's essentially a touristy souvenier shop on steroids in the middle of the badlands. what's the big deal, you ask? they start advertising for hundreds of miles in every direction. (and also, according to several signs, in kenya and london.) when i first heard of this, i thought they were all the "wall drug! 240 miles." followed by "wall drug! 232 miles." and so on. but this is not so! they have a great many signs, advertising all sorts of interesting things - dinosaurs, mining, cowboys, free ice water, and the BEST OF ALL: the 5 cent coffee. oh yes. i definitely was looking forward to wall drug.

it's actually a pretty ingenious campaign, because after hundreds of miles of seeing these signs every mile or so, you seriously can't pass through wall without seeing what all the fuss is about. and wall drug isn't the only attraction that uses this kind of sign campgain - most of the ridiculous attractions in south dakota do the same thing. which, for the easily distracted and amused, is FANTASTIC! i wasn't bored once during the whole 5 hours of south dakota. it was pretty great. any time i'd start to wander, another crop of signs would show up and i'd start thinking about all the different places i should really go see! reptile palace? oh yeah! the flinstones camping resort? you betcha! THE CORN PALACE?! most definitely.

actually, the corn palace was already on the schedule. i'd heard about it enough from ashley and, well, anyone who's passed through south dakota, that i knew i had to stop. it is everything you can imagine a corn palace to be, and more. i'll let the pictures tell the story.

there's a different theme every year. 2008-2009: everyday heroes.

when not a souvenir store, the corn palace is also home to the mitchell high school basketball team. who would've guessed?

this is zeke. he invited me to take a picture with him.

after the corn palace, i was back on the road headed toward wall and the badlands. at one point, you go up over this hill and then suddenly look out over this huge valley. gorgeous. turns out it's the missouri river. thankfully, they had a rest stop advertising "scenic overlook." for future reference, about 90% of the time when they tell you there's a scenic overlook ahead - TRUST THEM. especially in south dakota and wyoming. so far, they've been pretty reliable.

there was a pretty big storm brewing somewhere ahead, and i didn't exactly have reservations anywhere, so i opted to head directly to wall rather than taking the scenic detour through badlands national park. wall was quite a town - all four blocks of it. wall drug itself is kind of ridiculous and touristy, but you DO get a chance to ride a jackalope. and all the 5 cent coffees you can afford! mmmm.

nice sunset, too :)

and karla, this one's for you.

west, south, now east of the cities... woodbury!

2008-07-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

so after breakfast with kate, it was time to head over to woodbury to la casa de bieze! i made a quick trip to target - incidentally, the first target i'd ever been to! before target had even moved to rochester. it was a special moment. - then managed to find my aunt's house without even needing maggie-ellen's help! of course, it was only about a year and a half or so since i'd been there for tim's wedding, but still. i was pretty proud of myself in any case.

clearly, it was fantastic to see my family again - i've really enjoyed getting to spend time with them now that we're getting older and figuring out our lives and being all adultish. plus, they're just plain fun :) wednesday night, my aunt and liz and i went to the st. paul saints game - andy's the athletic trainer for the team, so we kind of hoped to be able to see him... though he only really comes out on the field when someone is hurt. unfortunately (or, really, fortunately), no one was hurt, so no trainer andy on the field. but it was a fun game, anyway - i hadn't been to a live baseball game since the sox a couple years ago, and i hadn't been to minor league since a red wings game in rochester when i was like 8. not only was i amused by their opposition - the witchita wingnuts! hahaha, what a name - they had games and a little pig that came out on the field between innings. it was all quite fun.

though it threatened to rain on thursday, we managed to escape most of the foul weather and had a fabulous day on the st. croix river - we drove about an hour north of the cities to taylor's falls, rented a canoe, and followed the river about 3 hours down to oceola. it was a lovely ride - though we all got a bit more sun than we expected, i think... i had some lotion on, but i was rather pink that evening in any case. the wind was against us for most of the ride, so we had to paddle a bit more than we'd expected originally, but the river was gorgeous. we saw a few bluffs, and right at the end, a bridge! yay for bridges.

we were pretty beat after a day in the sun, so the rest of the afternoon was pretty relaxed before heading back over to shakopee for one last dinner with brian before i left town.

friday was a bit surreal, as i was finally accepting that it was about time to get ready to leave minneapolis! i took my car to get another oil change (it was a bit early, but i didn't really want to have to worry about getting an oil change in the middle of wyoming or something.), stocked up on some munchies for the next week of driving, and generally started readying myself mentally for this next - and biggest, and scariest - part of the trip. thankfully, i couldn't spend all afternoon worrying about it, as my aunt and i went out to dinner with tim and jenna before tim's softball game. my very first chipotle experience was quite delicious, but sadly tim's game was a bit of an, um, non-game. the game was a make-up for one that was rained out, so it wasn't on the original schedule, and the other team never showed. booo. but it was still great to see tim and jenna, and watch batting practice :)

all too soon, it was friday night and time to get ready to leave saturday morning...

scenic detour #1: faribault

2008-07-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

after saying goodbye to brian monday morning, i grabbed breakfast and a coffee and settled myself into a lovely seat at the local caribou coffee shop. (for those of you unfamiliar with the starbucks of the upper midwest, it's like walking into a northwoods cabin that happens to serve coffee and scones and has free wifi. yum.) after i deemed it late enough that i probably missed most of the morning traffic, i headed off to the mall of america in search of my favorite coconut lotion. they have at least two bath and body works - the odds are good, right? not so. sadly, it is no longer in production. why is it that that always happens with the best products? gah. i knew i should have bought more of it last winter.

my real mission at the MoA, though, other than reliving memories of trapsing around with karla for hours and hours, was lunch with kate! kate and i sang in the choir together at wellesley, and sadly have not had many chances to see each other in the past couple years - i could not pass up a chance to see kate dale in her native minnesota while i was in town! (kate was also the first firstyear that i helped as an ask-me sophomore year. it was a pretty exciting moment. i helped her dad find her UPS packages among the masses of packages waiting for the arrival of the firstyears.)

after lunch, we found a tourism pamphlet about faribault (pronounced fair-bough, for the curious among you) - it's quite a cute little town about 35 miles south of minneapolis, and homebase to where kate is running a couple re-election campaigns. it's cute, though it seems to be, well, somewhat lacking in the booming downtown business. "downtown" faribault is only a couple blocks long, but it has kind of a haunted, empty feeling. perhaps because it's summer, and they're digging up the road at one end of town, but mostly because so many of the stores were either closed for the day, or closed for good. empty buildings are kind of creepy.

kate and i made a stop at the post office to return sam to karla...

the performing arts center, though, is doing quite well. they even knew i was coming!

kate had some work to do that afternoon, so i took the opportunity to take a bike ride along a bike path that followed the river at the edge of town. highlights included the tilt-a-whirl factory! kate and i had tried to drive by earlier, but didn't really see anything special from the road, or any real signs at all, so we'd given up on hopes of seeing tilt-a-whirl history. riding behind the factory, though, gave a whole new view! it's kind of hard to tell through the fence, but they had several tilt-a-whirl carts out back - not just the normal red and yellow carts, though, these were bear-shaped! kind of creepy, actually. but there you go.

also, there were bridges. i like bridges. as you can see.

after a quick dinner at a local coffee shop (javalive!), we headed back to the house she's staying in outside of town for a lovely evening of catching up from the past few years and reminiscing of wellesley days past. the supporters she's living with are super nice, and the wife even made us scones the next morning. seriously. it was pretty great. we took our time getting ready the next morning, then went back to wander around town a bit - now that stores were open - then went back to javalive to steal some free wifi and get some work done. oh, and reward ourselves with amazing ice cream. that was good too. blueberry waffle, oh my!

kate's tuna sandwich was kind of messy.

after kate made her calls for the evening, we headed back up to minneapolis for dinner with kate's boyfriend, charlie. poor charlie. kate warned him that we're the most indecisive people ever, but we were pretty bad that night. no one wanted to make a decision on where to eat, till we forced kate to decide - but she did quite well, of course, and dinner was lovely :)

wednesday was another early morning (we had to leave the parking ramp - aka parking garage - early to avoid the creepy early-morning parking guy who likes make comments about the various reasons that cars might have stayed in the garage over night), but kate found a caribou coffee, and we had another lovely breakfast before we parted ways again...

a much-needed respit in shakopee.

2008-07-22T12:19:00.004-07:00

so after all of that crazy driving through chicago and wisconsin, i was definitely ready for a chance to relax. i made it fairly easily to brian's place - though i think maggie-ellen had some fun with the directions and decided to give me the scenic route of minneapolis highways at rush hour. thanks m-e. - and settled in for a few days of quality down time with brian and his sophie-cat.

sophie's a sweetie, until she attacks.
but then she stands up like a prairie dog, and overwhelming cuteness returns.
it's her strategy, i think.

so how does one relax, shakopee-style? glorious mornings of sleeping in, adventures to mall of america for lunch with brian's friend tim and his parents, surprising everyone with my wii bowling skillz, surprising no one with my lack of ddr-like-fireworks-game skillz, batman-movie-going (so so good, but creeeepy heath ledger!), mini-high school reunions (where erica again showed off her lack of eye-hand coordination in her bean-bag throwing - thankfully i didn't try the darts :), family gathering for brother's birthday, riding in antique cars, fantastic hibachi-sushi dinners complete with clown-like birthday masks, and even a few law & order and marathons to boot. ooooh and ax men! (such a cool show.)

mostly it was great being able to hang out with bri, meet a few of his friends and family, and not really have to obsess like the crazy i am (usually) about the rest of this trip... and what i'm really getting myself into. quite enjoyable, on the whole :)

me & bri at his parents'

*deep breath*

somehow the weekend went by superquick, and suddenly it was monday morning - bri had to be downtown fairly early, so we were up fairly early - early enough to see an incredible sunrise over the canterbury racetrack from his porch.

not a bad way to start the morning.

monday morning couldn't be held off much longer, though, so bri headed off to work, and i was on my way to meeting kate for lunch and the next stop on my minnesota adventure... faribault! (extra credit to anyone non-minnesotan who can pronounce that one correctly.)

i know...

2008-07-17T09:20:00.006-07:00

that i'm (very. veryvery.) behind in posts and pictures. bear with me. i'll be in minneapolis for the next weekish, so i'll post updates from the first part of the trip over the next few days. i apologize for the delay.

but know that i am happy and healthy and whole in minneapolis. as near as i can calculate, about 1557 miles after leaving boston. thank you thank you to zach, alex, ali, dan, and brian (ntm assorted family, roommates, and pets) who have welcomed me into their lives and homes along the way. and let's all give maddie a huuuuge thank you for getting me this far :)

ok, off to post day 1. promise.

madison to la crosse to minneapolis. miles 1237-1557.

2008-07-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

after the brilliant breakfast at lazy jane's, i bid dan farewell and hit the road again. i entertained the idea of trying to head down to spring green for a brief look at taliesin/ house on the rock, but by the time i got on the road and filled the tank, i decided that i'd really much rather be on my way to an afternoon with cousin liz.

after another lovely drive through wisconsin farmland, liz and i went out for lunch in downtown la crosse, followed by a brief tour of the city on the way up to granddad's bluff, one of the bluffs looking out over the city. it was another scorching day, but it didn't take long to see the gorgeous view from the bluff. liz pointed out iowa, off tot he southwest, minnesota directly ahead and to the east, and the flooding in wisconsin all around.

so much crazy flooding.

plus, look at these equally gorgeous ladies :)

after just a few minutes in the sun, though, those gorgeous ladies needed to cool down. and what better way to relax and cool off than a bloody mary at the bar near the top of the bluff? liz's roommate bethany happened to be bartending that afternoon, and made us the best bloody mary i've ever had - complete with cheese and olive and jerky and pickle! and with such great company? nothing to complain about there.

all too soon it was time to be back on the road, but this time headed up to minneapolis to see brian! i managed to miss the storms, and most of the traffic, and made it up to brian's by early evening - *phew* i'd only been on the road since saturday, but after a whirlwind through lake michigan territory, i was definitely ready to settle in and relax a bit for a few days. thankfully, brian was more than willing to help :)

mequon to madison. miles 1147-1237.

2008-07-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

i have to say, of the cities i've visited so far, madison has by far surpassed my expectations. i've always kind of dismissed it, noting the rave reviews of friends and family who have either lived there or passed by, but not really paying too much attention - i mean, it's wisconsin. how great could it really be? and university of wisconsin at madison? talk about huge. way too many students - and just too far away from home to really consider seriously.

so imagine my surprise when i find myself sort of bumbling into the city, without any real plan or direction, hoping that the touristy signs will be enough to get me to a place where i can stop and maybe look at a map. or ask for directions. or something. originally i'd planned on heading to taliesin (to fulfill my american studies/ frank lloyd wright obsession) and/or the house on the rock - who can pass up a chance to see a giant sea monster singing the beatles? seriously? - but i decided to pass through madison to get a sense of the city before heading back to meet dan later that evening. the wills had highly recommended "the terrace," so i had a starting point.

well, i DID find the terrace - monona terrace - but managed to miss the parking lot (um, don't ask me how. i was a bit overwhelmed.), then found myself on one of the highways circling the lake, and oh! look! a park! with parking! i'll just stop here for a minute and check the gps. well, once i stopped at the park, i realized the car was pretty happy there... and i could actually just take my bike off the back, and ride back into town. thus fulfilling my dream of what this trip might be like - driving from city to city, parking the car, and exploring by bike! whoo!

madison from across lake monona.
you can just see the terrace - the big white building on the shore.

first stop: monona terrace. i had a better look at it as i rode back along the lake, and couldn't help but think it looked familiar. kind of like a frank lloyd wright. yeah, well, funny thing: it is a frank lloyd wright. good job erica. (i was a rather embarrassed amst major for a moment or two there.)

yeah... not one of my prouder moments.

it was a perfectly gorgeous day, though, so i didn't want to stay inside for long - after exploring the roof deck for a bit, i wandered up the road to the capital building (and the starbucks across the street that lured me in with their new chocolate banana smoothie thing that is simply heavenly for banana-chocoate aficionados), then rode back around the lakes a bit, over to the university, and back to my car just in time to be my typical fashionably late to meet dan!

roofdeck views from the terrace.

capital building, clearly.

i think it's required of big universities to have a hall with a statue out front.
not sure exactly why they chose abraham lincoln as their statue, but he's pretty cool so i'm cool with that.

don't forget, anyone can be a hoofer.

i'd told dan he had one night to convince me of madison's amazingness. i will admit, he presented a pretty solid argument, at least gastronomically :) scrumptious dinner at the weary traveler (complete with key lime cocktail! and wisconsin cheese plate. mmmmm.), followed by a trip to a coffee house (escape? dan? help?) with delicious tuxedo mocha and a dazzling array of distracting art for the easily distractable. though i did my best to focus on conversation, the art did manage to steal my attention a couple times. sorry dan :) the next morning, dan took me to lazy jane's for undoubtably the best nutty scone i've ever had (scones, the breakfast pastry of the gods) and an eggplant, zucchini, tomato, and goat cheese egg scramble. now, those of you who have lived with me and know my obsession with ALL of those ingredients know that that's pretty much my ideal breakfast. (with the possible exception of swedish pancakes and lingon.) amazing. very good job, dan. don't worry, i'll be back.

rum wench & captain dan

oh, dan also made me hold his fish.

no, really.

chicago to mequon. miles 997-1147.

2008-07-14T19:00:00.002-07:00

after stopping in des plains, refueling maddie with some ridiculously expensive gas and myself with a ridiculously large iced coffee, i was back on the road. maggie-ellen worked her magic again and managed to get me back onto the highway headed north to wisconsin! ali and her sister had just returned from safari in africa (yes, africa.) the night before, and timing worked out perfectly for an afternoon and evening visit in mequon before the wills headed "up north" in wisconsin and i headed on to madison.

after surviving the road construction for the 35 miles north of chicago (ugh), and perhaps illegally avoiding a toll plaza (does it count if they gave me a choice - "cash =>" and, well, an empty lane - and i just kept driving forward? and, um, chose not to pay cash? ah well.), i made it to wisconsin! and was welcomed, soon after, by...

that's right, the mars cheese castle! you can even just see the little towers. it was pretty fabulous.

i arrived in mequon (about 10 minutes or so north of milwaukee), easily followed ali's (and maggie-ellen's) directions, and arrived at ali's house in time for some of ali's mom's fabulous shrimp gazpacho. after a tour of the will homestead, ali and jenny and i hopped on our bikes for a biking tour of their childhood! first stop: a nearby park (the name of which escapes me) right on the edge of lake michigan. we sat on the bluffs. it was pretty great. after a quick ride along the ridge to see if we could find a path down to the water - passing a shady businessman making drug deals at the park in the middle of the afternoon - we decided against falling down the bluff, and continued on our bike ride.

look erica, bluffs!

next stop: donges bay elementary! where we found lots of good learning equipment and advice for young growing minds. and a pretty great playground.

ali wants us to remember to live, laugh, and play.

i took her advice.

ali likes to survey all she can see.

too much living, laughing, and playing for jenny and ali.
they're on the wall.

all in all, always remember that you are the sum total of your choices.

C:haracter, the foundation to accomplishments
H:onesty, always the best policy
O:wnership, take responsibility for your actions
I:ntegrity, do the right thing
C:ourage, to be yourself
E:ffort, do your best
S:ervice, help others when you can.

after donges bay, ali and jenny showed me their middle school (and we rode through "the back 40" scientific and environmental study area).

then we headed over to homestead high school, where we decided it would be a good plan continue our mode of transportation... inside. no worries, it was mostly summer sports programs in the school, so we were just, um, showing the children our committment to an active lifestyle. ahem. but i did get to see a fair bit of their school, their swimming records immortalized in plaques, and had a chance to chat with ali's roommate's mom. a lovely ride through will childhood :)

after another scrumptious meal courtesy of mrs. will - including blackberry raspberry pie, oh my! - we watched a bit of "gone baby gone", made a quick trip to kopps for the most amazing frozen custard i've ever had - twix-flavored: caramel custard mixed with chocolate and shortbread cookies, then home again to finish the movie. ali also watched "city of god," which i would love to say that i watched, but, um, i think i'm going to have to see it again to fill in some pretty significant gaps. ah well.

the next morning was pretty busy as i got ready to head to madison, and the wills prepared to head up north for the rest of the week. it's kind of hard to believe i don't know when i'm going to see ali again... but i'm so so so glad that i had a chance to stop and say hello on my way through... plus, who would've guessed wisconsin would be so cool? little did i know about madison to come...

awww

"eventually, i think chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world."

2008-07-14T08:00:00.001-07:00

you know what? i think i have to agree with frank lloyd wright on that one. it IS a gorgeous city.

so i finally had my car in a parking spot down the street from zach, my bike was safely inside in the bike room (yay for universities and bike rooms!), and zach and alex were perfectly lovely and welcoming to this weary traveler. it was great to catch up with zach, and to meet alex (zach's girlfriend) - i'm finally getting used to seeing all of my friends reaching various levels of seriousness with their respective significant others, and it's really getting to be quite enjoyable. plus, they're wicked cute when cooking us (fabulous) dinners. much good eating, drinking, and reminiscing was had. then we watched law and order. what could be better?

on sunday, zach and alex had to work downtown, so we all went into the city - while they worked, i had a bit of a shopping spree at banana republic, then enjoyed an afternoon wandering around navy pier and the magnificent mile. it truly is magnificent. though i think too big for me, in the end. i'll certainly be back to visit, though :)

navy pier - karwa, remember this ferris wheel?

views of chicago from navy pier

ashley, look! i found you a boat! :)

the next morning, on my way out of chicago, i drove up to des plains to visit my grandmother's grave... it took almost as long to get from hyde park to des plains as it did to get up to milwaukee afterward, but so so so worth it to stop and say hello. even if there were several slight moments of panic when i couldn't find her grave... but that made the finding all the more special. thanks grandma joan :)

oh, look at all the stopped traffic ahead. but you have to appreciate the skyline.

rochester to chicago. miles 392-997.

2008-07-12T15:00:00.003-07:00

of course it makes sense that i decide to start out with one of the longest driving days of the whole journey - 605 miles, and what ended up being about 11 hours. it took a bit longer to get everything packed in the car than expected, but i was on the road out toward buffalo by 8am, savoring my last taste of western new york and central ontario radio. (i'd forgotten about canadian radio stations! whoo! a great surprise to start the morning.)

along the way, i appreciated my favorite sights along the most western stretch of the thruway. the batavia turf farms! the massive native american statue welcoming (or sending us away?) from the seneca reservation. the "correctional facility ahead: do not pick up hitchhikers" signs. (hahahaha. that still cracks me up every time.)

you know you're getting close to that itsy bitsy stretch of pennsylvania when the frequency of fireworks signs starts to reach ridiculous levels - apparently, though, fireworks are not as lucrative as they used to be. now these establishments have expanded their product lines: the little truck stop villages along the highway boast signs for these stores: fireworks and karate supplies! fireworks and cheese! fireworks and... jelly bellies? that's right. "fireworks! jelly bellies! free samples!" i was so consumed trying to figure out if the samples referred to jelly bellies or fireworks, i not only missed the exit, but i missed my chance to get a picture. ah well. at least it gave me something to think about till i got to cleveland.

when there was rain. torrential downpouring rain. so much rain you couldn't see the car in front of you. or the road. or the giant massive puddles of water because it was raining faster than the water could drain. welcome to ohio!

not much to say about ohio and indiana. there were some nuns-in-training and amish families at the rest stops. that was pretty cool.

around 5:30, i got into gary indiana and realized that i had not yet looked at a map. i'd been driving for about 10 hours at this point, and had been relying entirely on my understanding that 90W would get me to chicago. clearly that's all i need to know, right? well, i have my gps and zach's address. the gps (maggie-ellen) will lead me there!

thankfully, she did. thankfully, i did not get lost in hyde park. thankfully, the traffic was reasonable.

by the time i got to zach's place, i was faced with my next challenge: parallel parking in hyde park at rush hour with a bike on the back. hahahaha. yeah, if you ever want to test your parallel parking skills - try that one. have fun!

but at least i'd made it to chicago.

and here we go.

2008-07-11T19:43:00.006-07:00

10:47pm. i will be on the road at 7am tomorrow. 8 hours 13 minutes. this does not feel likely. but it will happen.

maybe.

my timeliness not withstanding, it's been a good week in rochester. not what i was expecting, perhaps, but still good... linda was able to take off several days from work (thank you, mom! and tammy and everyone at work for letting her take the time off :), so we had a couple good days of mommy-daughter time. there was the fourth, and reliving my childhood with the town hall craft fair and parade and bike decorating and i kind of want to cry because it's so familiar and so distant and i feel old. (though i also wanted to cry when i got caught in the parade. which was also ridiculous as it's not like it's a complicated half-mile parade route. still frustrating.) after heated debate about where to watch fireworks (irondequoit too buggy, others too far to drive, blah blah blah.), we decided to watch the rochester fireworks from the south wedge - we used to watch from the bridge near my great uncle's house. (cut to july 1989, when 5 year old erica is irritating linda, who tells her to settle down and count to 100. i get mad, and think "i'll show them, i'll count to a THOUSAND before they notice." and i did.)

then my father and i took a very enlightening road trip to faaaaar western new york (south of buffalo), linda and i spent a day thrift store shopping, and i explored irondequoit by bike. that is, i found all the biggest hills that were IMPOSSIBLE in 5th grade, and... well, now aren't so bad. but i did get to see a lot of why irondequoit isn't such a bad place to live.

the olmsted park by the zoo

charlotte beach. SO PRETTY.

so i got caught at the drawbridge...

and had to spend a couple minutes looking up and down the river. darn.

and whenever i got home, i packed. a lot. for all that i felt like i was ridding myself of SO much stuff - i still packed the car just about to the brim. but letting go of so much has felt incredible - i'm not good at letting go of memories, let alone the physical things tied to those memories, so the process of going through *everything*, recognizing those times and places and people, and then setting it down and letting it go... it's helping to kind of make room for the experiences and memories and people yet to come. i recommend it. but be prepared for some tears.

but at least through such a draining process, i had the pleasure of this company:

jessie cat!

oscar, the dumpster cat!

it's going to be hard to leave. but at least i know i have my avacado pit friends, ava and raul, to keep me company across the miles. i named ava. linda clearly named raul. "so if this one's ava, what should the other one be called?" "how about... raul!" clearly.

may i introduce you to my traveling companions... ava and raul.

and now, to bed. tomorrow, chicago.

back to rochester. miles 0-392.

2008-07-03T06:12:00.009-07:00

i debated about starting this blog with the leg from boston to rochester, because, really, it's not exactly the most exciting part of this trip. for those of you who've never experienced the drive between boston and rochester, lend me your imagination for a moment...

first, start driving west. (to make it authentic to my trip, put yourself in a veryveryvery full mazda3, with two bikes on the back. maddie was not terribly happy with me for much of the day. especially in the birkshires. haha, little does she know what's to come! like when i drove a friend from colorado to syracuse one time, and she was SO excited to see the mountains in western mass. that she'd heard so much about. we made it across the hudson before she asked when we'd start seeing mountains. i laughed.)

you might look like this. driving cap not optional.

ok, so you're still driving west. cars are passing you, because you're in massachusetts and not driving 80mph. but you have most of your worldly belongings in the car, and two bikes on the back, and you're not really in a hurry to get back to scenic rochester in time for rush hour. (another tip: beware the bike grease when loading bikes onto a bike rack. bike grease + comfy travel dress do not mix well.)

there are mountains, by which i mean you go through some hills that break up the monotony. there's a storm somewhere near springfield. after about two hours of the masspike, you finally see a sign for the thruway! you get excited: maybe a chance to make a driving decision! maybe i'll get to turn!

but no. your hopes are dashed, when you realize you're just going straight again. though you do get to follow the masspike pilgrim hat for a bit longer. and that makes you laugh. you've always liked the pilgrim hat.

soon enough, you realize you're leaving massachusetts. then you make this face.

but you know you'll be back. and you're excited for the adirondaks! oh, you also get to make your first of two decisions. follow the thruway west to buffalo! do not go to albany or montreal. and see your first signs for niagara falls information - despite the fact that niagara falls is 400 miles away on the other side of the state. go figure.

you soon remember, however, that after albany there is a vast unpopulated stretch between albany and utica that SUCKS YOUR SOUL. the most boring stretch in all of upstate new york. i can't even remember what i do to get through it - i've already blocked it out. just don't speed too much - the cops don't have anything better to do than catch wayward speeders who, really, probably just want to get out of the doldrums as fast as possible.

still driving west.

yup.

west some more.

most of it looks like this:

or this:

in the winter sometimes there's a storm or two.

more west.

amsterdam! one of my favorite views.

herkimer! one of my favorite names. plus the beech-nut foods factory.

westmoreland! another favorite. i like to picture the pioneerspeople in their carts and wagons, stopped because they're SO BORED by the scenery and can't go any further. but there's one enterprising pioneer jumping up and down, pointing west and saying - west! more land! this is what the boredom does to me.

the exit numbers slowly pile up... once you get through utica, syracuse comes up pretty quickly and suddenly you're at exit 39. then 41 - the outlet mall! whoo! you don't stop, because you already have enough crap in the car, but you look longingly at all the pretty things...

finally, you reach exit 45. sometimes you stop to see your father at work. today you hop right on 490 and head back to irondequoit.

392 miles and about 7 hours later, you're dodging sunbathing cats as you pull into the driveway.

and the first thing your step-father says when you step out of the car? "geez, looks like you finally put some meat on your bones!" thanks, rik.

welcome home.

farewell, brighton.

2008-07-02T20:17:00.001-07:00

so i meant to start this as i left boston - the sort of official start of my westward journey - but yesterday morning came and i finished packing the car and cleaned the apartment and loaded the bikes precariously on the back, and then i'm in the car and headed west. luckily, i still had about 7 hours of the ride left to think about my first post. so here goes.

it seems so trite to say that leaving boston was difficult - of course it was difficult. it's not like i didn't expect this. but all the same... it was tough. i still can't really believe i've given up these amazing people and everything i know for this idea of potential happiness on the other side of the country. and then, to have received the amount of support i've been given from these people i'm abandoning - i'm overcome. i could not wish for anything, anyone, more than you. thank you all so much for your friendships, for your laughter, for your understanding and support. i will miss you all more than you can know.

i may not understand why this move feels right - if more than a little crazy, and more than a lot scary - but i'm trusting the signs i'm given. i'm trusting the feelings telling me now is the time to go. i'm trusting the eagles - the first song i heard as i pulled onto the pike.

so here i go. put me on a highway, and show me a sign.