Suitcases

all that junk inside your trunk

Friday, July 28, 2006

the wrap-up


So we made it home last friday and have been very busy doing lots of crap that you don't care about but also wrapping up our videos and photos for one last entry about the road trip. Here it is!

First our faked coming home video:



And our cool collage of all the "welcome to our state" signs. Can you figure out which ones are missing?


And that's it! Don't fret, when we get back from Europe there will be much much more! Au revoir!

Monday, July 24, 2006

So...

We got back to Massachusetts on Friday and wanted to make a big huge final post with all of our video and pictures, but then we fell asleep for four days instead.

Actually, we found Christina her apartment, but here are 4 videos we made in the meantime! (Note: this is not the final post, although it is big ad huge. We'll put in a proper final post from the road trip soon!)

First: Chicago

Fun times at the Museum of Science and Industry, Millenium Park, other things.



Second: Indianapolis

We didn't take a whole lot of video, but we got to drive around the track they race the Indy 500 on!



Third: Car Trouble

The car wouldn't start! Leslie fixed it with some help from her dad. (Norwalk, OH)



Fourth: Niagara Falls

Canada is pretty sweet.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Howdy!

Post-Chicago things have gotten a lot quieter, but not less fun! We spent a day in Indiana seeing the sights including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500. We got to take a tour on a van that drove us around the oval and everything.


We also went to New Haven because we're suckers for photos of things that remind us of Yale.


After Indiana comes Ohio!


And the home of our good friend, Leslie Root!


We went swimming in Lake Erie (you might recognize the man fighting biting flies on the right from this post. He is still MIKE CHAN!!! and is visiting his girlfriend at the same time we are!)


And played miniature golf (this is where I got a hole-in-one!)


And yesterday we spent all day at Cedar Point, "America's Roller Coast"


We went on the #1 and #2 rollercoasters in the world, according to this guy and also one really crappy one where the only thing we got out of it were these 3D glasses.


And here are some other pictures of roller coasters because they are awesome.



Now we're off to Canada! ttyl!

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Chicago!

And here are some pictures from during Chicago:


What are those things in front of the skyline, you ask?

Those are me and Christina...on Segways! We took a Segway tour of the lakeshore, and they are so fun. If anyone has one that they would like to sell for less than $5,000, then I'd get it.

We got to see these corncobs that might look familiar to some of you:


And now the obligatory list of Chicago touristy things...

The Art Insitute


The Bean in Millenium Park



Museum of Science and Industry (and our first thermal imaging on the blog, I think)


and giant pizza (stuffed from Giordano's)



And now we're actually caught up!

pictures from before chicago

After we went to the world's biggest mall and hung out with Chris Lange:


we went to the Wisconsin Dells and went to America's largest water park! Then we decided we hadn't had enough "biggest" things so we went to Wisconsin's largest tourist trap, The House on the Rock. It was full of really creepy dolls and weird collections of things:


It also is home of the world's largest merry go round, which has something like 300 figures, but you can't ride on any of them. You can, however, take very artsy pictures of them as they spin around:


We then saw the world's largest six pack, but didn't get a good enough picture to post, so we'll just tell you.

That's all of the world's largest things that we'll see I think, unless we get surprised by something in our last few states!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

another movie!

Hello! We just left Chicago, which was wonderful, but had very bad internet. Now we are in Indiana and decided to catch up on videos! So now we're caught up! Here's stuff from the badlands in South Dakota. Chicago pictures/movies will come...eventually.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

America!

While traveling across the center part of the country, Christina and I have gotten to see some things you would never see, except in this fine country. So, we've put together this tribute to America, featuring such americana as rodeos, tractor pulls, giant malls, and dinosaurs.

p.s. the Wisconsin Dells are fun and crazy, also full of waterparks.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

we forgot iowa!

You might think that iowa would be easy to forget, but no! Iowa is great. We were eating at this chinese restaurant and sitting right behind us were four blonde children and their blonde Mommy:

"Mommy! I want to sit on the tractor!"
'No! Me! I want to sit with Daddy!"
"Is we having a tractor race?"
"No honey, we're having a tractor pull"

So basically eavesdropping is the best thing ever. We got to see a tractor pull!


For those of you who have no idea what a tractor pull is (because we certainly didn't know and thought it was when two tractors are tied together and pull each other in opposite directions until one dies), basically a tractor is attached to that big red truck which has a mechanism that gets heavier over time. The farther you can pull it, the stronger your tractor is and the strongest tractor wins!

So, another late video, this time from Yellowstone! (We're catching up!)



Yeah, it actually hailed a little while we were there, but that didn't stop us from checking out all the crazy hydrothermal sights.

Stay tuned for more video from your favorite road trip, ours.

Monday, July 10, 2006

in other news

Besides looking at really big animal statues, we have been pretty busy. We realized that we have pictures that go all the way back to Wyoming, and we have now been in four new states! Here is a little taste of what we have been doing, in as good as I can remember chronological order.

1. So we're in the middle of Wyoming, which is mostly just flat and dry and ho-hum. We need gas so we pull over at a gas station.

"Hey, all these bikes are in the way of the pump!"
"Wait, I think they're on the habitat trip"
"Do you think they're from Yale?"
"Hi Erin!"


So yeah, we ran into the people who are biking across the country from New Haven to San Fransisco, including fellow Trumbull '06 buddy Erin Dress! Wow!

2. From flat Wyoming we went to flatter Nebraska. Nebraska, however, is anything but ho-hum. We hung out with Costa on the ranch and he took us horseback riding!


That was a lot of fun, but I had a very ornery slow horse and a very sore bum the next day.


The rest of the exciting things that we did in Nebraska are all going to be in the video that will happen soon. But not soon enough.

3. From Nebraska, we went straight North into South Dakota, where we had our last bout of internet. We looked at this rock that has some faces carved into it.


And we had a really great campsite in the Black Hills National Forest.


We also did things like go to a water park, go down an alpine slide, play miniature golf, and pan for gold, but those don't photograph nearly as well.

4. Also in South Dakota, we went touristing at Wall Drug, a ridiculous general store pretty close to that mountain with the faces carved into it. We even mined for gems!


5. From there we headed to the Badlands, a crazy national park that looks kind of like mars, full of spiky and colorful rock formations and rainbows. I'm not sure if there are rainbows on Mars, but whatever.




6. We drove faaaar (still in SD, that state is BIG) to get this picture. I think it might have been worth it.


7. In South Dakota we also made our first friends while camping! The first night at the lake we talked to some people from Pennsylvania, and in the Badlands we chatted with a couple from Santa Cruz that noticed we had a California license plate. At the edge of South Dakota where it meets Minnesota and Iowa, we met a bunch of people from Sioux Falls who were taking their new camper out on its maiden voyage.


They were very friendly and invited us over and told us that when we write our book about the trip we should mention Mike, Barb, Beth and Darren and how nice people from South Dakota are. It's true, they were pretty nice and this is sort of like a book, right?

8. Also, we cleaned out the car! It used to look like this:


We don't have an after picture, but trust me, it's better.

9. And now we are in Minneapolis! Because we are getting really good at coincidences, we ran into another Trumbul '06er at the mall today, Chris Lange! Wow!

THE WORLD'S LARGEST BLOG

Just kidding, this is not the world's largest blog, but we just spent the day at the world's largest mall and are very excited about large things. The Mall of America is so big, it even has an amusement park in it!!!!


On that note, here are some pictures of very large animal statues, some of which are the world's largest.

PHEASANT:


JACKALOPE:


ANOTHER JACKALOPE:


PRAIRIE DOG:


ANOTHER PRAIRIE DOG:


Just kidding again! That last one wasn't a statue at all, it was a real prairie dog, eating a peanut that I fed it! I do think it might have been the world's fattest prairie dog so it's still legit.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

last one for the day

we're pooped after three videos today, and not enough pie. we might be going to swim in a lake later if it's not freezing out!



Enjoy the Lewis and Clark Trail, or as it is sometimes called, "The Jerky Trail."

and another

this one featuring Rita!

They're baaaaack

So, it's been a while since we had a video on here, but we're taking a slow day in Rapid City, SD to bring you a video from...

Seattle!

Yeah, it's late, but here you go. Enjoy!

Monday, July 03, 2006

Oh, and by the way

Nick got a haircut.

Before:


We were so excited to buzz it all off, we even went to Wal-Mart to buy the clipper, because there aren't too many retail options out here in Wyoming.

During:



maybe we should have left it like this? No! Onward!

After:



I think he looks cute, but then again, I'm probably biased. What do y'all think?

Red States Are Pretty, Part II

What about Yellowstone, you ask? Well here we go.

Yellowstone is a really crazy place. First you're driving through this neat mountainy forest and there are rivers and deer, the usual but then! it starts smelling like rotten eggs, there's steam everywhere, and little boys are falling through the thin crust into hydrothermal active spots!


Regular out west stuff:




(we actually hiked to take that last picture! It's a "natural bridge")

AND CRAZY HYDROTHERMAL ACTIVITY:





We even walked around in the rain to see some of the fun hydrothermal stuff. Here are the terraced hotsprings, and proof that we were out in the rain and are not total wusses when it comes to nature:



And of course, Old Faithful.


However, Yellowstone doesn't have just nice scenery, it also has BISON!


It also inspired us to feats of culinary magic. yumtastic!



Isn't nature great?