Been There, Done That, Got the Refund.

Day 2-destination: Chicago, Illinois (400 miles, 9 hours..yes 9 hours)

We said adios to Ohio around 9 this morning and were back on the road, wind rippling in our hair, sun warming our backs and a banquet of interesting scenery to feast our eyes upon.

Minus the romantic wind (we are not driving a convertible), subtract the sun (it was overcast and muggy all day), and replace the scenery with corn-corn-corn-corn-nothing-corn-corn; this would be an accurate description. Basically we managed to drive 400 miles over a nine hour span of time. Meagan, that should have been a six hour drive. Ah, my fateful hypothetical reader, your concern is flattering! However, you should realize that Emily and I are only human beings (I know, I know, hard to believe..) and are susceptible to colorful signs advertising large amusement parks. We were stir crazy from driving at that point and just had to go to Cedar Point.. at 9:10am.


And it was there, ladies and gentlemen, that a certain security guard crushed our hopes and dreams. Inside the park, Emily and I were eagerly waiting near the first rollercoaster we wanted to ride, waiting for the gates to swing open and let us rush toward it (the park entrace was opened, but the rides themselves weren't yet). A loudspeaker voice boomed overhead announcing the official openening of the rides, and simultaneously every other gate swung open letting the masses rush the coasters. A mob of people to our right swarmed to the coaster we had been waiting in line for. Someone in our stagnant mob yelled out "HEY, OPEN *OUR* GATE!" and the security guard who had been standing there this whole time casually mentioned that this gate wouldn't be open for another half an hour. What a jerk. Yes, he was a jerk. A capital jerk at that for knowingly let us get cut off by hundreds of Ed Hardy-clad highschoolers. At this point, about 300 teenyboppers were in line in front of us and it started to rain. Emily sent me a telepathic message saying we should just peace out of there.

Our tickets were $45 ea so we headed to customer service, where the sign posted on the door read "Sorry, no rainchecks or refunds." Luckily, I don't read signs and Emily just doesn't obey them (...more on that later). After quickly explaining a largely nonsensical story to the manager, swearing we had only been there for five minutes and promising we had positively ZERO fun whatsoever, he kindly gave us a refund. Ahh, the power of asking is a miraculous one.

Em and I waited until getting back to the car before high-fiving.

We spent the next leg of the journeying bashing all things the Ohio Turnpike had to "offer". (But then found homemade brownies our hosts in Ohio made us.. Ohio completely redeemed itself).

Thousands of acres of cornfields later, we were in Indiana. Remember how I said Emily disregards signs? Well the folks in Indiana were--to put this euphemistically--over-zealous to meet us. Really, they had to flag us down on the highway and pull us over to chat. Here is an excerpt from that conversation:

"Ma'am, do you know exactly how fast you were going?"
"Err, no.. officer, I don't know exactly.."
"You were going 86. The sign says the speed limit is 70. You slowed down after you saw me."
"Sorry sir, I didn't see you."
"Ma'am, you looked right at me."
"No, no, I was looking at the baby cows!"

Ugh. And in the contest between worst states, Indiana pulls ahead. (Surprising upset to all people betting on the favored winner, Ohio.) I had the good idea of waiting until the cop left to snag this:
..Replace corn with cars. Stuck in traffic. Actual rain starts falling...
Time somehow passes.

Appropriately enough, Sufjan Stevens' "Come On and Feel the Illinoize" was playing as the Chicago skyline began to form in the distance. We had tickets to the Cubs game but vetoed going, blaming everything on sleep deprivation, rain, and not wanting to deal with public transportation. Or the public for that matter.. Instead, I got to re-live the college shopping process as we detour-ed to tour a potential grad school-- Northwestern!




Since about a month ago when Kerrie and Diana tried teaching me how to cartwheel, I've decided to attempt a cartwheel on the grounds of every school I visit. When I can successfully complete it, I know I have found my right match.The jury is out on NU. But they did have a patch of perfectly manicured grass that was basically begging people to cartwheel across it. Points for that.


We found our way to Winnetka where Emily's aunt and uncle are graciously hosting us for the evening. After some delicious Thai food, some disappointing basketball, and playing with some awesome gadgets (iPads), we are tired little travelers. Much like going to the beach, driving on the highway is inexplicably exhausting. Tomorrow we set out to tour Chicago and find some deep-dish pizza. (Gorman, are you surprised that my day planning is food-based?)

Bedtime for us. I've got to lure the cat to come sleep on my mattress with me.

Goodnight to readers and hypothetical readers alike.

(PS- Maggie, when trying to upload these pictures, I re-discovered a video of you macarena-ing outside H2N0.. Amazing.)

Don't Know About Cleveland, but Berea Rocks!

Day 1-destination: Cleveland, Ohio (700 miles, 12 hours)

Well our first thought was that we shouldn't put you through the boredom that we suffered today. So, we could make up a story to tell you, but that wouldn't be fair to us. That being said, we're going to tell you the truth: Upstate New York is a bunch of farm land..with all the surrounding roads busy with construction. Oddly enough (sarcasm doesn't come across in text, does it?), the top left corner of Pennsylvania that we have to sneak through to get to Cleveland is in the same situation. Other than the construction and the three missed "Welcome to" state signs, there's not a lot to report right now. Again, it's primarily farm land that we've been looking at as we're going through the CDs we've burned and all the topics of conversation covered. We're still trying to think about the day's end rather than the large number of miles we're covering, but that's becoming more difficult when we pass a mileage sign for Cleveland every eight, thirteen, or twenty-three miles or so. It's been a long day, having left at 7 am and knowing we've got two hours still to go, but thanks to some fatherly advice from my dad, we avoided a big detour. You see Niagara Falls looks VERY close to Buffalo, NY on a map, but in real life with traffic it's a two hour+ excursion. So with that being said, we passed on that, and we're going to coast ourselves into Cleveland to see Liz Jordan (a friend from Sandwich) for the night!





...more of Upstate New York...

Made it Cleveland..well, actually Berea, Ohio. Since it's fifteen minutes past Cleveland, we got to see the city skyline, Lake Erie, and the Cavs area/Jacob's Field (Go Celts! Go Sox!). It was so great seeing Liz--our first person/stop on our seven city tour! Downtown Berea looks like a Hollywood movie set with its cute little buildings, and it's got a great local restaurant (Cornerstone Brewery) with really good food. It looks to be that food will be the focal point of our trip, but we're OK with that...

Hopefully tomorrow's drive through the rest of Ohio and Indiana on our way to Chicago will be a little bit more entertaining...riiiiight. We'll be getting into Chicago tomorrow and writing before we head to the Cubs game (and then a sports bar for the Celtics)!

Good night!
Em and Meagan

One More for the Road

Welcome to the adventure.

So, as my trusty companion has told you, we're about to embark upon an eight-day grand adventure. We will be driving from East Sandwich to the Pacific Coast to deliver a car in sunny San Diego. What do we get out of this? Well, I get to fulfill a life-long dream of driving cross-country, and Meagan gets to test her patience with me and all the Emily-isms (that I'm only imagining to be magnified upon trekking through eleven states, eight days, 3000+ miles, and countless songs on the radio) that come with the territory. And of course, we'll be getting to see this wonderful country, terrific friends, and all that the road has to offer (along to/near the interstate highway system that is).

I think there's a fine line we'll be riding between the ignorance of the miles to be traveled and the excitement of the adventure in front of us. That fine line might become blatantly obvious after our stop at Niagara Falls on Day 1, bathroom break #5884, driving into the sunset on Day 4 in Kansas, or potentially upon our arrival into Las Vegas on late-Saturday night. That's an option; OR maybe we'll be watching the waves crash on the beach in Pacific Beach, San Diego, California next Sunday evening thinking about all the great things we've just seen. I'm going to hope for option two. Luckily though, we're kiddish enough to find simple entertainment in picture taking, video recording, and sign making events to make this one amazing adventure between here and there.

Yes, I am the planner. Yes, I am the logical thinker. Yes, I know our series of destinations and activities along the way. However, I have Meagan along with me to make sure all of those things are for naught. She'll be the one to find the "World's Largest Ball of Yarn" in Indiana, or want to veer off into Michigan because it's just that close to our travels, or constantly ask, "'Are you sure Ohio borders Kentucky?' and 'You're positive St. Louis is in Missouri?'" That's all OK. I welcome it actually because it's truly part of the journey..that will ultimately bring us to San Diego, California to meet up with my brother and his best friend.

We're set, in a manner of speaking, to start on this trip bright and early Monday morning (given that Meagan wakes up). There are just a couple of work shifts we both have to get through before we can officially start our journey, but we figured a few entries to say hello to you couldn't hurt. Regardless of where we are at the time, we'll be writing from the road, taking pictures, filming video clips, and uploading our days to you here on the blogspot. Wish us luck, and we'll be seeing you soon I'm sure..especially if you're on our travel route!

We'll fill you in from Cleveland, Ohio and Day 1's recap Monday night!

East Sandwich, MA.

9:58PM Friday

If you're reading this, then the jig is up.

Thanks to a little tool called a timestamp, inevitably, regardless of how cool and Kerouac-esque I really am, you will learn that I'm writing this inaugural post at 10 Pm on a Friday instead of participating in anything remotely social. And so I have chosen to compromise my usual air of casual mystique to be upfront with you, hypothetical reader, by kindly placing the time and date at the beginning of this post as a gesture of good faith. Yes, it's Friday night and I just watched two PG-rated moves back-to-back. I am at peace with these facts, (especially because How To Train Your Dragon is arguably the best movie of 2010). Anyway, if we are going to have any kind of relationship at all over the next couple of weeks, might I gently suggest that you refrain from judging and/or questioning my tactics until it's all been said and done. Like Jack Bauer, my antics are only understandable in retrospect. Also, I often yell "THERES NO TIME!" at my responsible and pragmatic best friend, Chloe.

Just kidding. Her name is Emily.

And on Monday (assuming I wake up on time) we'll be embarking on a 9 day jampacked trip to the west coast. Well that's nice, but which cities are you even going to? Good question, hypothetical reader! I like your enthusiasm. Unfortunately though, seeing as I've asked Emily that question about 17 times and still can't remember the list, you will just have to wait until she posts it for you (us). If you remember from five sentences ago, she is the responsible and pragmatic one. In fact, she is at work right now! Yep, she's making the big bucks while I am here in my office (bed) listening to this song and thinking about how badly Bon Iver probably needed a post-breakup hug. But what if someone DID give him a hug and it was so healing that he never went on to conceive 'For Emma, Forever Ago'? Cripes. That is an alarmingly convincing message for an anti-hug campaign. Well luckily, according to my records, he was not hugged and so the bullet has been dodged. Re: Stacks lives on. Its most recent home is on one of many playlists being created in preparation of the trip. Its future home should be in your musical library.

Speaking of preparation, I've got some stuff to do before bedtime. It's easy to find a dashboard hula girl on eBay; it is significantly less easy to find a dashboard Jack Kerouac bobblehead.




Goodnight all.