Good thing we left Buffalo when we did because we broke down somewhere in upstate NY on the Thruway. Yada Yada Yada, it was a fuel pump problem and I fixed it in what felt like 30 degrees on Saturday morning, took a nap, jumped back on the road and headed to Cleveland in the early evening. We had to make it there in time to get sleep for the big day at the park on Sunday.

The park open at 10 but we slept in a bit and arrived there at 11 with plenty of time to get all the great coasters in before it closed at 8. It was a nice day but pretty cold, which was actually good because the lines we’re not that long, at least in comparison to Magic Mountain in LA. Speaking of MM the whole day was a comparison to me, a battle of the best coaster parks in the country, more on that in the conclusion. I’m pretty sure we went on all the best coasters there, but I’m not positive, Pete will have to let me know. Anyway my favorites were Maverick, Millenium Force, and Top Thrill Dragster. We didn’t stay until closing, but just about, we left at 7. However we did stay long enough to ride both Maverick and Top Thrill Dragster two times each. Besides all the thrills that the coasters provide, the views of Lake Erie were pretty cool too. It was a whole experience going to Cedar Point, great location and great coasters. So the ultimate comparison, MM vs CP, I’m still undecided on the overall results, they are both so fun, but I do know that the X at Magic Mountain is still the best roller coaster I’ve ever ridden.

We only had one day to visit the city of Cleveland because my brother is coming in to Chicago on Tuesday. With another epic 8 or so hour drive to Chicago from Cleveland we didn’t want to have an intense day touring so we just went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For all you Seattle readers, it’s a lot like EMP. I actually liked it better than EMP because it had so much more to see and learn. Don’t get me wrong, EMP is cool, but the Hall of Fame is pretty fun. Maybe I just like Rock and Roll a lot and therefore I thought it was really cool, I don’t know. After seeing all the artifacts and listening to all the songs I got a pretty good idea of some music I need to download in the future (legally of course). Well, after the Hall of Fame we went back to the bus to prepare for our last two man journey.

- Carson

After rounding third base so to speak by leaving Boston we began our final leg of the adventure back home to Seattle. Finally we were heading West on I-90 after months of East on the 10 and North on the 95. Actually it was the Mass Pike, but officially I-90, anyway. That reminds me, in case you didn’t know, almost every freeway you want to go on in the northeast all the way to Chicago is a toll road, so keep cash available. We drove through MA in the early evening and we were able to see the beginnings of fall in the northeast, it looked pretty cool. It’s weird being from WA where all the trees have needles instead of leaves like all the trees of the northeast (coniferous instead of deciduous if you want to get technical). So we made it through MA and took a break in Albany for a nap in the evening before making the big push through upstate NY to Buffalo. It took a while, but eventually we made it there and quickly went to sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

The next day we woke up and headed to the number one attraction in the area, Niagara Falls. Not really knowing where to go we just started walking around and followed signs to the falls. Eventually we found ourselves in the state park and next to the observation deck. For just a dollar we were able to walk out on the deck for a better look at the falls. Our dollar also allowed us to go to the bottom of the falls where we could climb up some stairs right next to the crashing waters. We pulled a few ponchos out of the recycle bin and headed up the stairs for a closer look. Let me tell you, we were defiantly unprepared for the events that transpired. I’m not sure if it was a particularly windy day or if maybe there was an exorbitant amount of water flowing but we got drenched with spray from the falls. Our ponchos helped a bit, but we were soaked. Skater shoes were a bad choice that day, after the hike they weighed about 10 pounds each. There are some good pictures of the fiasco if you want to check them out. After the monsoon we did a little more walking, we crossed the rainbow bridge and the American border to check out the view of the falls from Canada. What we determined is that Canada got a way better deal on the falls. All the best pics are taken from Canada, probably what you’re picturing right now is the view from Canada. We took about 50 pictures or so and then walked back to America, but not before getting a magnet and some Canadian candies. Funny side note, it costs 50 cents to get out of Canada by foot. We walked through the state park a little more, took a few more funny pics and eventually made our way to the car to head back to Buffalo. I could spend a couple paragraphs trying to explain in words how spectacular the falls were, but it’s a lot easier if you just look at the pictures. (A picture is worth 1000 words, right?) We left Buffalo after only seeing the falls because we had to make it to Cedar Point in Ohio before the weekend was over, otherwise we would have to stay another week to be able to go to America’s Roller Coast.

- Carson

Did I just wake up from a nightmare or is summer really over? I didn’t realize it until we woke up in Boston and I was freezing my butt off. This trip has come a long ways since 115 in Yuma, AZ. We might have to switch out the AC unit for a heater for the home stretch. To get a feel for the city, we thought a duck tour would be a fun way to see the area and kind of plan out our stay in Boston. The tour was a little overpriced, but our guide was funny, told a lot of jokes, and everything in Boston was wicket so it was worth it. We met up with my uncle’s friend Steve afterwards for a bite to eat and he invited us to stay at his house which we obviously accepted seeing as how we haven’t had a house to go to in a while. The plan for the next day was to walk the Freedom Trail and see all the sites, but before we got started, there was a huge crowd standing outside a church downtown so we had to investigate. We found out there was a movie being filmed and that Dane Cook, Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin were on the set. There’s a picture of Kate in our picture section if you want to see how pretty she is. Boston is a lot smaller than New York City so after walking the Freedom Trail which was like five miles long, we saw most of the sites. They included: the Boston Common, the old State House where the Boston Massacre occurred, the USS Constitution, Paul Revere’s house, the North End, the Bunker Hill Monument, and Beacon Hill.

After that we headed off to America’s first college, Hahvahd, to beat up some smaht kids. We didn’t actually beat up any smaht kids, that’s just a line from one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting. During our self-guided tour of Hahvahd, a friend of a friend that lives in Boston called to meet up with us for drinks. Her name is Karin and she’s a very nice girl. The next day wasn’t one to write about because it rained all day, but I did have a chance to play tennis against my nemesis, Steve. I thought about letting him win to be nice, but my competitive nature kicked in and I was able to persevere in the end. There’s always next time Steve. On Wednesday we met up with an old friend, David Tarr, at MIT where he goes to school. He’s wicket smart. David showed us through some labs at MIT, we saw some crazy stuff like a fully autonomous vehicle meaning it controls itself by learning on its own. Good luck in the Navy David. We couldn’t leave Boston without seeing a Sox game at Fenway Pahk, America’s first ballpark. I never thought I would actually get to see the green monstah in real life, next time I’ll have to sit up there. The game was pretty boring, but it got interesting towards the end with the Sox down one in the bottom of the ninth. With one on and one out, David Ortiz (Big Papi) was up to bat which means you’re in trouble if you’re the opposing team. He already hit a home run earlier in the game, but for the icing on the cake, he hit another one to win the game and everyone went crazy. What a way to end our visit in Boston.

So driving in New York, if you haven’t heard, it can be very tricky and usually nerve racking. Also if you haven’t heard our rig including the trailer with the car on it is about 50 feet long and goes from 0-60 in maybe 10 minutes. Needless to say these facts do not compliment each other very nicely. Knowing all of this, we decided to leave our spot in NJ at around 10 to avoid NYC traffic, thinking we could be in Newport, RI (our next stop) by maybe 3 AM. Well we actually left at more like 11 because our movie ran a little later than expected. Anyway the punch line is that we got lost a few times and made several wrong turns creating about an hour and half delay in our schedule, plus the hour later we left. So by 3 AM we had only made it to New Haven, CT which then became a great place to stop for the night and the next day. Actually it was really good because one of my cousin’s favorite pizza places in the Northeast is in New Haven. We slept in and did some work around the bus and headed into town to check out Yale and get a bite to eat. Yale was pretty awesome, just the buildings alone impressed me plus the town was really nice. After the sun went down we went to Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria and began waiting in line. Apparently it is well known that Pepe’s is a really good place, not to mention the fact it was Friday night. So we waited in line for a while and talk to a really nice local guy and his family. As time passed the eBUS live story unfolded to them and they were really excited. Apparently the kids were talking about doing the exact same thing, I mean exact, they wanted to buy a school bus, convert it, and travel the country. They were really nice people and it was fun to talk to someone that was so interested in what we are doing. Eventually we got in and ate our pizza, as advertised it was really good and currently is in contention for best pizza in the country. The family we chatted with in line actually paid for our pizza, it was the nicest gesture we have received on this trip thus far. We took a picture with them, check it out, they are awesome and they single handedly put CT in the top spot for “state with the nicest people” so far in the trip. That night we drove to Coventry, RI to prepare for the day in Newport.

We got to Newport early in the morning and took a nice little walk/hike along the cliffs at the waters edge. The views were amazing and the mansions we walked by were gigantic and over the top, but impressive. After the 8 mile walk we were pretty tired so we found a nice place to get some food in town, right next to the Tennis Hall of Fame. After lunch we walked around the hall of fame a bit and watch some of a match that was being played on the grounds. I’m not really sure how excited Lieu was, but with his tennis background hopefully he liked it, I thought it was pretty cool. I know the soccer or basketball hall of fames would be cool to me. Anyway we then went to the Breakers and took a tour of the most luxurious home in Newport. In today’s dollars it cost $150 million to build, it has 70 rooms, decorations nearly on par with Versailles in France, and the Vanderbilt’s only lived there in the summers. Fun fact: at the height of the family fortune they had accumulated more wealth than the entire United States treasury. I thought the Breakers was pretty crazy but Lieu wasn’t impressed, ask him about it. After the Breakers we just walked around the Harbor area a little and checked out the shops and the people. I felt left out because I didn’t have a white sweater draped over my shoulders, just kidding, but that area is very rich and exclusive. Newport was a really nice area though, I can see why all the rich people live there.

- Carson

After Labor Day weekend we just had a few things left to do in the city before we left. First and foremost we had to eat some authentic Brooklyn style pizza. As recommended by our tour guides and the NYC locals, Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge Overpass is supposed to be the best pizza in town, apparently people wait like 5 hours for it. Knowing it was a popular place we decided to try and get in for lunch on a weekday to avoid the crowds. It wasn’t that busy and the pizza was amazing. I’m not yet going to make a call as to the best pizza in the country, but Grimaldi’s is in contention. After Grimaldi’s we took a nice little stroll across the Brooklyn bridge, actually we were exhausted from walking all week but somehow we managed to make it across the bridge and capture a few photos on the way. From there we headed to Times Square via the subways. We met up with Lieu’s Aunt and Uncle again for a drink just before going to Phantom of the Opera. I had seen a few theatre performances before, but none on Broadway, and for Lieu, it was his first Broadway style show he had ever been too. The show was great as predicted and the singing was amazing, we wanted to see Jersey Boys but apparently you have to buy tickets a few months in advance for that one. Anyway, we got our Broadway experience.

The next day we woke up a little late but once again made our epic 2 hour journey to the city this time ending up at the Met. Apparently it has the largest collection of art in the Western Hemisphere, so it’s one of those things you have to see, but there is so much you can never see it all. I have about a 1.5-2 hour attention span at Museums so we cruised through most of it pretty fast. Unfortunately for us the part which I was looking forward to most was closed, the 19th century European Paintings. Most likely people reading this will be more familiar with that part of the museum when remembering Thomas Crown’s adventures at the Met, and if you haven’t seen the Thomas Crown Affair put that on your NetFlix list. Back to the story, after the Met we cruised to the top of the Rockefeller building for a mere $20 a piece, but the views were spectacular. (Check the photos). Lastly we had to peruse the shops of Canal street to look for any fake items we needed, replicas of products made by Rolex, or Louis Vuitton, or Gucci, and so on. We didn’t purchase much and we headed back to the bus, exhausted.

Some unmentioned highlights of New York
We witnessed five or so performances ON the subway trains as they were moving, highlighted by the Mexican guitar/accordion duo, the break dancing group, and the A capella singing couple. We also saw countless other performance from Michael Jackson to a crazy contortionist. We had lots of great pizza, walked hundreds of miles and rode the subways for thousands. At Coney Island there is a game called Shoot the Freak where you shoot a live target with paintballs (we didn’t play). There was a man preaching on the Ferry one morning. We spent a total time of 18 hours in one week commuting. We witnessed several occurrences of drama on our commutes: girls crying about boys, guys yelling at their phones to other guys, countless drunk people, and so on. A few key lessons: don’t use your MTA card unless you know for certain that you are entering at the correct place, otherwise you have to wait 18 minutes to use it again; Half price tickets is a scam because only the $120 seats go on sale for $60 but the box office sells other tickets for $40 or less if you don’t care about how close you are; all boroughs are much safer than they were 5 years ago; not all subways trains run at night; MoMA is free on Fridays but madness ensues; the Met is pay what you wish; pizza generally is by the slice (except Grimaldi’s); reserve tickets online to the late shows at least two months in advance; and cabs currently only take cash. New York was crazy, but it was a great time, I’m sure I’ll be back there many more times in my life.

- Carson

Saturday turned out to be a really nice day so we started out with a trip to the beach, Coney Island. Actually we went to Flushing, NY in queens to go to the US Open, but tickets were unavailable, then we headed to Coney Island. It’s not so much an island, more of a beach/boardwalk in Brooklyn. If you’re from the west coast you might know it best as the location of the world championship of hot dog eating or maybe where the first roller coaster was built and is still operating. Needless to say after walking around the boardwalk for a bit we had to ride the rollercoaster. The coaster is over 80 years old so that fact right there is enough to scare anyone, but on top of that, the car you sit in is heavily padded on all sides, which makes you wonder. Thank goodness for the padding because as we quickly found out it is 100% necessary. It basically felt like I was getting beaten up, it knocks you from side to side and from front to back so fast you don’t even have a chance to catch your breath and regroup. It was the craziest ride ever, Lieu was drooling all over the place because couldn’t close his mouth due to the constant screaming throughout the ride. By the end I was crying from a lot of laugher and a little bit of pain. It was completely worth it and if you ever get the chance to ride it, take it. We also had to eat Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, or should I say Lieu ate. The best part of Nathan’s was the gigantic sign on the outside that served as both the Hall of Fame and the countdown clock to the next World Championship of Hot Dog Eating. If you’re an avid ESPN watcher you may have recently seen Chestnut dominate Kobayashi in the annual challenge by devouring 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

After Coney Island we went back to the City and walked around a bit. We cruised through Little Italy and Chinatown just to check it out. It looked pretty cool but it was a zoo because it was Saturday night so we didn’t spend too much time there, plus we were on our way to meet up with my cousin, Bregan, for a drink at McSorely’s, the oldest pub in Manhattan. I’m not the biggest beer drinking and Lieu is allergic to alcohol, but McSorely’s was pretty cool. We then went to a nice little patio bar in Union Square and hung out for a bit. It was good to see my cousin and Becky. We had a few laughs and we got a few insider tips from true New York locals, I was particularly excited about all the pizza places Bregan suggested. It was a late night for us, we left the city at 12 or so and some trains were closed and the ferry doesn’t run regularly so we ended up back at the bus at about 3. The next day we slept in late and did laundry and whatnot around town. We needed a break to get some sleep and catch our breath from the fast paced life of the city, plus we had big plans for Labor Day. Lieu will tell you all about Labor Day…

After failing to get into the U.S. Open on Saturday, I knew I was going to regret not seeing Roger Federer play and that I might never have a chance like this again. When he is done with his career, he will be the greatest ever. The Mariners were also in town for a three game series with the Yankees which was a big deal because they’re both fighting for the lead in the wildcard race. So the plan was to see both tennis and baseball on Labor Day which meant we needed to find tickets fast. On Sunday night we started doing some extensive research on Craigslist for the cheapest tickets we could find. I made a few phone calls and it was done. We just had to trust that the people we talked to wouldn’t flake out on us. Monday morning we had to wake up relatively early to pick up tickets to both events. The transactions went so smoothly we even had enough time to stop by a popular bakery to have cupcakes for breakfast. People were waiting in line for these cupcakes before the store even opened, I couldn’t believe it. We lost track of time having one of our usual deep conversations and had to rush to the Mariners game. This was a great game to go to because Roger Clemens was pitching for the Yankees. I think he gets paid a million dollars every time he starts a game which is just ridiculous. Just as we found our section, we heard the crack of the bat and quickly walked through the tunnel to see the ball go over the wall. Ichiro just hit a home run off of Clemens. I was excited to see my homie do so well against one of the best pitchers ever.

 

Other than that, the game was pretty standard except for the incident that began somewhere in the sixth inning between a drunk kid and three innocent girls that were sitting next to us. This was not your average drunk dude; this guy had persistence and determination. He stood through three straight innings working as hard as he could to impress these girls. After a while the crowd began to take note of this situation. Somewhere in the bottom of the ninth, a guy from a few rows back decided to get involved by yelling out, “Give him ya numba, he’s been workin hard all afternoon for it.” At that point the baseball game was pretty much over and everyone around us decided to focus their attention on the developing situation by cheering on the kid. The same guy who yelled earlier saw things weren’t going too well and decided to help the kid out again by shouting, “Come on, take a chance on life.” The nearby crowd began cheering expecting a happy ending by the girls giving him their number, but unfortunately this story has a sad ending because no numbers were exchanged which led to the crowd booing the girls. I’m glad we went to this game because they ended their nine game losing streak and lost the other two games against the Yankees.

 

Next up was the U.S. Open where we got to see Roger Federer play against somebody I don’t know. To be able to see someone this good play is like watching Michael Jordan take over a basketball game, but something must have been wrong with Roger because he ended up losing the first set badly. It didn’t help that his opponent probably played his best tennis ever that set. Of course Federer turned it up a notch and won the next three sets with ease. I have never seen anyone as good as him and I don’t think I ever will, unless I come out of retirement. Do you think I could beat Roger if I still played today? Please leave your opinion on the comments page. My aunt and uncle were also there with a couple of friends so it was nice to see them and talk about the match afterwards.

New York was crazy, but it wasn’t quite over for us, part 3 of the series is coming soon.

- Carson

Sorry it has taken me a while to write my last blog, but I have been very busy with getting myself situated at Berkeley. Better late than never, right?

Life without the bus and my buddies is not nearly as fun. I mean what can beat traveling around the country with your best friends? It was very hard to say goodbye and it all sank in on the way to the airport that my adventure was really over. I said goodbye to Carson with tear filled eyes, and had about an hour by myself waiting at the gate before my 5 hour plane ride back to the West Coast. I sat in the airport watching the planes come and go and it reminded me of the Wright Brothers and how I saw the site where they launched the first aircraft. Then, I began to think about all of the other amazing things that I saw over the past two and a half months. I came up with quite a lengthy list, so for your sake, I’ll only mention the hits of my highlight list. We visited the Southernmost Point in the Continental United States, saw the Hope Diamond, visited NASA and saw historic mission control (as well as some amazing rockets), ate the best pizza in the U.S. (according to Oprah), visited George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s houses, saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, visited the sight of the infamous O.K. Corral gunfight, went in the room where the North beat the South in the Civil War as well as the house where our country gained our independence, saw where Lincoln got shot and where he died, ate at the original Margaritaville, saw the festivities of Bourbon Street in Louisiana, meet Paula Deen and ate at her restaurant, visited the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, hiked in the Carlsbad Caverns, we sailed, snorkeled, and swam with manatees, turtles, stingrays, and sharks, I held a gator, we kayaked to our own island in the Keys, I saw the white house, and went inside the capitol of our country. It wasn’t even these main points that I will remember and miss the most. I’ll remember the bus rides where Carson, Lieu, and Stephen would sing at the top of their lungs to the country music blaring in the background, the day where the bus broke down three times and then consequently driving 10 hours out of the way to see Kenny Chesney while the bus got fixed, Carson’s jellyfish sting (and how much he complained about it), making dinner in the Wal-Mart parking lot behind the bus, Carson catching a puffer fish, a crab, a sea sponge, a barracuda, and a tropical fish with his 3 day fishing license, the huge thunder storms (one of which nearly took away our tent in Key Largo), the bug bites we all got in the Everglades and the Keys and the mosquito killing fests we would have in the tent before we went to bed , and finally I will remember all the countless laughs and giggles we all shared together. I will miss my friends and all these unique times we had together. Although I had to learn to live with boys, which was more difficult than I thought, they taught me so much about myself and how to live life to the fullest!

I had the best time this summer, and I will always keep with me the memories of eBUS live. Thanks Carson, Lieu, and Stephen for an adventure of a lifetime!

-Ashley

As you can imagine it is very difficult to find a parking spot for the bus in New York City, let alone one where we could sleep. Knowing that we were going to be there a while and that some areas of New York are not the safest, we opted for a campground. Hours of research revealed that the closest park cost $60 a night and the next closest one was 30 miles away in NJ ($20 night). Needless to say we chose the NJ options and we were stuck with a commute to the city every morning and night. This commute was like no other I had ever been a part of, it was epic. First we had to drive from Cheesequake State Park over a few bridges to the southernmost tip of Staten Island, then we parked the car and took the train to the northern end of the island to catch the ferry which we rode through the bay over to downtown Manhattan, from there we caught one of three different subway lines to ultimately get to where we were going in the city. The whole ordeal took about an hour and a half on the average, but our first day out it took us 3 hours to get from Cheesequake to Central Park. Fortunately for us the Staten Island Ferry ride is pretty interesting so the commute wasn’t that bad, the ferry takes you right past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on its way to docking in the heart of downtown Manhattan. We have some good pics of the ride and the sites posted. Central Park was pretty amazing, it’s awesome that New York put such a gigantic park right in the heart of the metropolitan area. We walked around a little, but it is much too big to explore all at one time, plus we knew we were going to be doing a lot of walking in the following days.

The next morning we woke up at 6 AM and began our epic commute to Manhattan in hopes of getting standby tickets to the Conan O’Brian show. They pass out tickets at 9 so we figured being there at 8 or so would work, obviously we misjudged that one. We waited anyway, about 50 people back, and sure enough when they taped the show later that day we found out we waited for nothing as they only took about 10-14 standby tickets. Exhausted from standing in line all morning and with only a few hours sleep we decided a bus tour would be a relaxing way to see the city, learn a few NYC facts, and get our bearings for later navigation. We purchased tickets for the double-decker bus that included 4 individual tours (Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn, and Night Loop) for about $50, not a bad price for 8 hours of guided touring. At least that was my perspective on the purchase, Lieu had a different outlook, $50 for 8 more hours of sleep sounded like a good deal to him. We only did two of the loops the first day, Uptown and Downtown, saving Brooklyn and Night Loop for the following day. After the tours I was ready to do a little walking just to get the blood flowing again and Lieu was well rested for some activity. We cruised through the financial district, took pictures in front of the exchange and the bowling green bull. I don’t know if you know me that well or not but going to Wall Street was somewhat of a special experience for me, maybe something like Mecca to the Muslims, well not that extreme but you get the idea. From the financial district we headed back to the Ferry terminal to take our long ride back to the bus to sleep for the night.

Though we were exhausted from the previous day and had only accumulated 6-7 hours of sleep in two nights we again woke up early to try and get Conan tickets. This time we woke up at 4 AM, we wanted to be the first in line because they almost always make it into the show. We made it there by 6:30 (2 and half hours early) but yet again our judgment faltered. Our mistake this time was misjudging the public’s love for the guest that night, Scarlett Johansson, because at 6:30 we were about 25 people back. This time we didn’t wait around, we at least learned to not waste our day with there as they only take maybe 15 people at the most and more likely 5-6 for that particular show. With not much to do at 7 AM we headed back to downtown to check out the World Trade Center site. There was more security there than anywhere else I’ve been in my life. Everyone was running around town as they would on a normal day so it didn’t seem that eerie, but I couldn’t help but think about what took place there only 6 years prior. Anyway, we continued the day by taking the bus tour of Brooklyn. Lieu of course slept the whole time, but I stayed awake and learned a lot of facts about Brooklyn from the tour guided who was born and raised there. The funniest thing to me was how much he hated LA. Let me explain. First of all on the east coast Baseball reigns supreme over everything, secondly Brooklyn used to have its own baseball team called the Brooklyn Dodgers. A little over 50 years ago the Dodgers moved to LA and our tour guide has never forgiven them for it and consequently hates anyone from LA. But Brooklyn was pretty cool and from what I hear it’s come a long way in the past 5 years. Houses that used to cost 50,000 in the late 90’s now cost half a million. After the tour we walked around South Street Seaport a bit and headed uptown to MoMA. It was free Fridays at the museum so naturally it was a zoo. We waited for about 30-40 minutes to get in and navigated the crowds to see the paintings as quickly as possible (we were in a hurry to get out of the madness). If you’re an art fan some highlights included: Starry Night by Van Gogh, Campbell’s Soup Cans by Warhol, a bunch of Picasso’s, and several Cezanne’s, Monet’s, and Pollack’s. Quick comment on modern art; some is pretty interesting and inspiring like Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, and Cezanne, but some of the stuff by like Pollack and Mondrian and other super modern artists is just ridiculous. Let’s just quickly recap Pollack’s famed art career, splash paint on large canvas, period. Or maybe Mondrian’s career, black lines on white canvas, fill in some sections with solid color, period. I guess I just have a hard time appreciating the extreme modern stuff, examples include: blank canvas with one cut through it in the center, blank canvas with small solid color border, painted gym rope, solid black canvas, solid blue canvas, crayons scribbled on white canvas…I don’t know about all that maybe I just need to take more time and effort to appreciate it, oh well. After MoMA we took the Night Loop tour on the bus, it was cool to see all the lights of the city. By the way Time Square is madness all the time day or night, which we found out several times, but driving it in the tour bus was pretty crazy. Lieu slept most of the ride as usual, but he did manage to get a few good night pics, check those out. After our 20 hour day we finally got back to the bus for some much needed sleep before the upcoming Labor Day weekend. Blog continued in part 2.

- Carson

When you think of Philadelphia, what comes to your mind? For me, it’s Rocky and the Philly cheese steak. We decided to make a grand arrival by driving straight through downtown during rush hour. It was more like three in the morning, but it was still cool. Carson hated it because he was driving and we probably stopped at every light there was. It was funny. This is what Carson had to say about driving in Philadelphia, “Apparently Philadelphia has yet to figure out the in-ground censor for traffic lights because I’m pretty sure I waited an extra 15 minutes each trip I took waiting at lights with zero cars around. It was terrible.” He’s very impatient and I’m very slow so I don’t know why we’re friends now that I think of it. Our friend Ashley just moved there recently to start her career so she knew a great place for us to park the bus close to her apartment. It was a nice change from always staying at Walmart. She has a dog named Jagger that’s a girl, but I kept calling her he and I think she got mad at me. Anyways, Carson and I decided to check out downtown while Ashley was at work so we parked on the outskirts of town because it was free and started exploring. The first place we went to was reading terminal market, similar to Pike Place Market in Seattle except way bigger. What I’ve noticed about a lot of the cities we’ve visited on the east coast is that there are parks in the middle of downtown where you can rest. I’m a big fan of those after walking countless blocks until you can’t feel your legs anymore.

When Ashley got off work we had dinner with her and then went out on the town. We heard South Street was lively on the weekends so that’s where we went. We conversed for a while at a couple of bars and walked to the waterfront before it was time for me to pass out. Though South Street was interesting, the bars did not have live music which was my favorite part about the nightlife in the South. On Saturday we went back to South Street during the day to check it out and there were a lot more tourists walking around this time. There was a multicultural concert close by at Penn’s Landing where we saw youngsters dance to some groovy music. Salsa was my favorite. I foresee some salsa lessons in my future. Do you think I can become a good salsa dancer? Please leave your opinion on the comments page. We headed back to Ashley’s apartment to cook our first homemade meal in a long time. It was going to be an adventure because we didn’t have Ashley Olson with us, but we surprised ourselves with some pretty phenomenal chicken. All we had to do was throw a lot of honey, salt and pepper, and a dash of garlic salt to create what we now call mystery chicken. We also discovered microwaving corn works, but not potatoes.

Sunday was our big tourist day in Philadelphia starting at the Museum of Art where the Rocky statue is. We thought the statue would be at the top of the stairs he runs up in the movie, but for some reason it was down on the side. It was funny because everyone runs up the stairs and you feel a little embarrassed, but you have to do it. It was time to try the famous philly cheese steak at Pat’s, a well known restaurant where I waited half an hour for my food. The weirdest thing is that the original philly cheese steak uses yellow cheese whiz instead of normal cheese, I opted for provolone. My expectations going into this must have been way too high because I didn’t think the sandwich was that good, but the experience made the wait well worth it. Next were all the historic sites in Philadelphia: Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Carpenter’s Hall, and so on. Contrary to popular belief, the crack in the bell comes from a botch repair job. We also got to go in the room where our country was born by the signing of the Declaration and the writing of the Constitution. We saw a lot of other historic sites, but we’ll spare you the details. On Monday we decided to get out of town so we took an hour drive east to Jersey Shores, home of Atlantic City and the infamous Taj Mahal. Atlantic City was like a baby Vegas except on the east coast and instead of the strip there was a boardwalk and a beach. We did a little gambling and won a stuffed animal on the pier. It was fun. After we got back we said goodbye to Ashley and her shower. With nothing to do that night, we decided to walk to a nearby basketball court and shoot hoops with the ballas. We tried to hang with the inner city kids, but they were just too fast and we were out of shape so we had to watch from the sideline as they talked trash to each other and argued a lot, reminded me of myself when I was little.

The last day in Pennsylvania was spent driving through the countryside to Lancaster County, home to a large population of Old Order Amish. It was quite an experience taking a tour of an old Amish village and seeing how they haven’t changed that much since the day they came over here with the Mennonites. Basically what I’m saying is they’re still living in the 17th century in the year 2007. It’s very interesting watching them ride buggies along the street while modern cars whiz pass them, or when they’re walking through the market with burlap sacks while modern day people walk by them on their cell phones. A few things we learned about the Amish that were quite shocking: they only use earth tone colors for their house and their cloths, they have nothing on the wall or in the house that doesn’t have a purpose, they have no connection to the outside world including electricity, water, and gas, and they refuse to drive automobiles, but can ride in them if necessary. They do have washing machines and refrigerators, but they have to ride their buggies to the gas station to fill them up all the time. The Amish lifestyle was shocking to me, but it just goes to show that there are different strokes for different folks. And to top it off, we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The lobby looked like a daycare, children everywhere. I feel sorry for anyone who goes there and is not a little child, but Carson was able to make it through the sea of children to purchase a bunch of candy that we are currently enjoying.

After Ashley left I took a day to mourn while we cleaned up the bus a little and did some laundry and whatnot. That night we were fortunate enough to meet up with my cousin Sean down in Alexandria, VA. We had a nice dinner at an Irish pub and it was pretty cool because our waitress was actually Irish, I wish I could type the accent out phonetically, but I just don’t know how to quite capture it. Anyway going off a recommendation from Sean we headed out to Annapolis the next day.

Seeing as how Annapolis is known as the sailing capitol of the US certain I was going to enjoy it, and of course I did. It’s a pretty small town but with a lot of history and naval ties. We also visited the Naval Academy campus there just to check it out. The campus was really nice and the very formal, we even saw some younger students or “midshipmen” practicing the color guard duties. After Annapolis we set sail for Baltimore (only on the bus, so not really setting sail, but you get the reference).

Baltimore brought about one magnificent change for us that we had yet to experience on this trip, wearing pants. For the first time in my life I was happy that it had cooled off and the sun was gone for a day or two. Luckily it didn’t rain though, so we were still able to see the sights in Baltimore. First stop was the National Aquarium. The best part was seeing a lot of the stuff that we actually swam with when we went snorkeling in the keys. The puffer fish that I once caught was on display in a tank, as well as sea turtles, sting rays, and other tropical fish like the tarpon. Actually let me reevaluate the best part, aside from the hundreds of animals in tanks and cages there was a dolphin show. It wasn’t quite like Sea World in San Diego (no Shamu) but it was pretty entertaining. After the aquarium we walked around the inner harbor and over to Fell’s point.

The next day we went to Fort McHenry. On an average day it would have just been a pretty cool historic fort with a good story to go along with it, but on the day we went it was awesome because we basically got to reenact the raising of the gigantic flag after the British retreated from their attack on Baltimore. You may remember the battle better if you listen to our national anthem, it was written at Fort McHenry after that battle. I won’t go into the whole history lesson about the fort and the song, but it was a cool experience to raise that flag at Fort McHenry. After the fort we cruised through the Mount Vernon area and saw the original Washington Monument. (Mount Vernon area of Baltimore, not to be confused with Mount Vernon, VA where Washington lived.) Apparently Baltimore made a Washington monument first, but it is nowhere near as spectacular as the one in DC. We also cruised through the first “Basilica” in the United States, it was pretty impressive. Baltimore was good and we lucked out with the weather finally, hopefully it won’t get crazy into the 100’s again on the adventure.

- Carson