EoB: DC to the Mississippi

After camp, finding myself homeless and unemployed, I went back to the Vineyard with Amy to apply to Drive Away/figure out my life/sit on the beach. To of those three things happened. I escaped the Vineyard a few days early to avoid being killed by Earl, and hitched a ride to Sudbury so I could repack for Eugene or bust. Earl was downgraded to a wimpy tropical storm, and I caught a flight to DC on Sunday.




In DC we stayed at Julie's amazing place in Bloomingdale. Before leaving we did some apartment hunting for me, and went on a few cupcake crawls, and wandered the mall for Amy. While wandering the mall, we noticed a to of people in Boise State getups. Obviously we were psyched, since we're going to Boise on our trip and are pretty excited about it - obviously the blue and orange was a good omen. So we stopped an older couple, the Wilsons, and asked them about Boise. They got us excited about Twin Falls, live music Wednesdays, the blue turf at Boise State and a bar called Chandlers ("where all the young kinds like you hang out"). We got their digits so they can take us to dinner when we get there.



We picked up the car on Tuesday morning. Bernie and Deb (or as we affectionately call them, Bernie and Phyl), the owners of Drive Away, were exactly as we expected them to be - but plus pugs! Most excellent. We examined the car, went over our document and hit rthe road. We drove through Virginia, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania (which killed us in toll money) and Ohio. We were hauling ass because we wanted to make it to Cleveland in time to get to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before it closed at 5:30. We ended up pulling in at 4:15 and spent an hour touring. The museum is awesome. We saw Elvis' car, Jim Morrison's cub scout outfit and all the original Rolling Stones albums. They had like,everyone's stage outfits and drum fronts, and the original Les Paul and Lennon's pianos. So cool. The building is really neat, too. It was designed by I.M. Pei.



After the museum, we made a quick stop at the World's Largest Rubber Stamp (first in a world's largest theme!) before heading for Kelsey's mom's house in Shaker Heights. We got a bit lost in some sketchy areas of the Cleve, but it was well worth the trip. Kelsey's house is absolutely beautiful (as are her parents). We can't believe they're thinking about selling! There's even a library ladder on wheels! (A lifelong dream of mine).



We slept in a bit Wednesday morning and then tried to find better directions to the World's Largest Fake Nose and Glasses. In the process though, we found out that they're in storage! So many questions....why?! where?! how?! They're the size of a house! How is that even possible?! As a replacement stop, Lacey helped us finda diner in Goshen from Diners and Dives (we made a no chains pact at the beginning of the trip). Appropriate, since Diners and Dives inspired our future stop in Boise.

We made it to Goshen and route 15 was under massive construction (much like the rest of our experience on Ohio freeways), but we eventually made it to the South Side Soda Shop. Totally worth it, especially for the ice cream floats. You get to choose a phosphate or soda flavor, and an ice cream flavor. Infinite combinations!


Eventually (despite massive rush hour traffic), we made it to Brynne and Sarah's place in Lincoln Park. We hung out, went to a pub and had a sleep over. Woke up at 7:00 Thursday to drive Sarah to work and move the car to a non-illegal parking spot. We spent the day having leisurely brunches and looking at apartments for Amy. In the afternoon, we drove out to La Grange to see my uncle Dave, his new apartment, and his new parakeet (who didn't like me sadface).

We planning to spend the night with Robin, so all we had to do was drive 45 minutes from La Grange to St. Charles. Instead, we practically drove to Wisconsin and saw a lot of corn (ie missed out exit and there wasn't another for about 30 miles). We finally made it, only an hour late. The Nelson's house is beautiful, and it was really good to see all of them, if only briefly.

Now we're driving to Omaha! The lady in a toll booth a while back chatted us up about our trip and recommended that we drive through Wyoming "because there are BISON! Just EVERYWHERE!"

AND we're about to cross the MISSISSIPPI!