DC shoes

so we have seen a lot of DC lately and all of it has been on foot. friday we walked around for a little over 5 hours and today we walked around for another 10 ish hours. yesterday Austin and mostly saw monuments and stuff while Thomas geocashed.

today we saw the American history museum among other things. the top floors were normal every day museum stuff, stuff we had more or less seen in every museum we have been to so far but the bottom floor was were the cool stuff was kept! they had old steam engines, water wheels, turbines, electric generators, the DARPA grand challenge winner and the motorcycle entry! it was awesome to see the computer rendered images of the roadway and see the final product of a project that i spent some parallel time working on.

after that we saw the natural history museum. they openly admitted that they used dice when determining ages of things ... ok so they didnt but some of it was really contradictory and funny to me, circular logic and the like. on one floor they tell us about global warming and on the other they tell us that the last 30 years have been on a cooling trend. there were some other holes in their story that made me laugh too. we saw the hope diamond and one of the only red diamonds on public display.

early in the morning we got tickets to see the Washington monument from the top and so at 4pm we went up there. we were saddened to find that they had an elevator and we would not get to climb several hundred stairs. it makes it a lot less cool at the top if you just zip up there you know? we waned to see the white house but sadly we didnt know that we had to talk to a congressmen or senator 2-3 months in advance to get a white house tour.

we moved on to the air and space museum where i touched a moon rock!(it was not in my nose) we are going to have to go back to that museum because we didnt finish before it closed :(

hopefully Thomas will find some time to put up more pictures of all the neat stuff we have seen.

All the way from Boston to DC

Too long has passed since our last post. Here's one to hopefully make up for that.

After our day in Boston, as was mentioned, we had a wonderful dinner with my dad at the Wayside Inn, which was full of history and delicious food. Our waitress deserves another special thanks for giving us all those extra treats.

My dad went with us on a whirlwind tour of the Lexington/Concord area and we saw everything from musket demonstrations to the place where Revere, Dawes and Prescott were stopped by the British. We also stopped by the Wayside Inn during the day and saw the chapel and the Grist Mill, where they still make flour. Some of our other stops included Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, the Colonial Inn, Harvard, MIT and Walden Pond.

Musket shot.

The Minuteman Monument.

After those quick days, we were on our own again. We made our way toward Springfield, home of the Springfield Armory.

Safety first at the Armory.

That Sam I Am.

After we saw the multitude of guns and history, we saw the Dr. Seuss memorial sculpture garden, (he was born in Springfield) and headed toward DC. We stopped by Ben's relatives in Maryland, (I think I left my scarf there.) and headed into Virginia.

When we last left our heroes...

Well Ben asked me to put up some pictures, so here are some images to convey the previously posted words:

Old Ironsides herself.

The USS Cassin Young.

Paul Revere's house. And Tacoma.

The fog over Boston. Not pictured: the rain from the clouds.

Two Redcoats.

Falcon Punch!

Sunset near Boston.

church search

well once again the Lord found us a good church! we got a late start looking for churches and so we missed out on some that were halfway through their service. we passed two Unitarian ones and eventually wound up at highrock. the people were friendly and the music was good. the message was well thought out and based on solid Bible teaching which is always awesome. after the service we went downstairs and they had english muffins with ham, bacon and cheese! we talked to a couple of different guys and then headed back to clean our car.

we moved some things around and as i was transferring the dried fruit i found up into the cartop carrier i noticed something kinda bad. 6 of the 8 pop rivets that held the subaru roof rack to the roof had failed! the cartop carrier was held on by a thread! (the angels pushing and fixing the car were likely holding that on too) i put a ratchet strap through the two back windows and over the top of the carrier to hold it secure until we could get something better rigged up. i also put some screws from my baggie of random hardware into the old pop rivet holes and duct taped them in so that they would keep the rack from sliding around while the ratchet strap kept it from flying off. we went to the airport and picked Thomas's dad and then headed for the wayside inn for dinner. this is the place that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about. i had the lamb which was good and i tried some of the fish that the others ordered which tasted like fish. our server was super nice and gave us a little something for our trip!

we got some 1" bolts and washers to secure the roof rack at home depot and i think they will hold well. i put them up through the holes in the roof and rack where the old pop rivets were and ill add some caulking tomorrow when i get a chance so it shouldn't leak or anything!

and now its bed time for me :)

riding stuff

well we went into New York City and saw stuff! NYC was our most expensive day yet at something like 65 dollars in transportation fees. we payed to park at the airport in jersey, took a bus to a train station and on the way out had to get a subway to the train, back to the bus and to our car.

anyway back to New York!

we walked down to ground zero. it was really powerful seeing where it all went down.



we kept going till we got to battery park where we could see the statue of liberty and the island. seeing the statue was kinda weird - its something that only exists in movies to me.

we started walking back north and found some awesome churches and the New York stock exchange!

Thomas and i used a little team work to boost him up onto the bull and Austin was our trigger man. all the little people enjoyed the show and started taking their own pictures on the bull instead of other places.




somewhere just south of central park we hear this guy walk around the back of a truck and shout "free ice coffees!" being who we are we raced across the street through crossing traffic to get our hands on some free goodness! we get over there and we each take one and the guy says "take take i want you to take!" so we take more and he says "you got pockets and a backpack!" we take more. Austin came around the corner with even more in his hands... yeah we have had those for treats lately :)



at some point we walked past what looked like a wedding with people dressed up, a band and everything. the only thing that was weird was that they had adds for sun crystals or some such thing all over the place. they were giving out free tea and free cookies made with some natural sweetener called sun crystals. you know us and free go well together :)

we also talked to some girl who had candy corn to attract people to sign up for a health club. yeah i know.

i was actually really impressed with how nice people were in NYC. the city was also clean and the street signs were well labeled.

we walked up to the MET art museum which was AWESOME! we saw a 6 shot revolver attached to a sword. we saw samurai armor, knight armor, photography, paintings and more. we really needed more time but one day was all we got :(

we walked through times square at night and across the Brooklyn bridge which were super neat to see.

we got back to the car way late and went to a wal-mart to sleep. in the morning a rent-a-cop informed us that we could be jailed for up to 30 days for trespassing ... guess walmarts in jersey are not as nice as ones in other states.

we busted out Connecticut and rode island on less than a gas tank. we saw Yale on our way out to Plymouth rock which was awesome! we got back on the road headed toward Boston. we started looking for a place to stay but the wal-marts said we coulnt sleep there as did the rest stops ... stupid Massachusetts. eventually we found a "road side parking" place where we spent the night in the car.

today we saw boston and more or less ran along the freedom trail. we saw the old north church, Paul Reviers houseand a bunch of other cool places like where the boston tea party took place. it was raining and we got fairly wet going from one place to another. we also found the USS Constitution which fought more than 30 engagements and is undefeated. we got on a WWII ship and i looked at the torpedo transmissions which were cool.

we ran over to the bunker hill museum and then ran up the 294 steps to the top of the 221 foot granite obelisk.

Thomas's dad is coming to visit and so we get a hotel and showers! and yes we will put up pictures of todays adventures tomorrow.

The forecast: A flurry of events!

Well the long anticipated wedding has come and gone. We spent most of our days waiting and our nights sleeping where we could, including some nights in a hotel! We made it back to Covenant Life Church, where they gave us more bread and then we went onward to the service. It was very nice and the reception was most enjoyable. Ben and I were made honorary groomsmen and even helped a little.

After breakfast on Monday, we made our way south through New York, to Pennsylvania again, where we visited the Martin guitar factory, both the original and the modern one. We went on a free tour and got to play some really fancy, expensive models. And by play, I mean they played and I plinked around with the few things I know how to play.

The 1,000,000th Martin Guitar.

We moved onward to Easton, where the Crayola factory is located. Unfortunately, we didn't have $30 to spare for all of us to go on the tour, so we saw the world's largest crayon and moved on to Philadelphia.

We spent a night outside Philly, in a hospital parking lot, where met the police the following morning. Again, the cops were very gracious and nice and we made our way into town. In town, we were met by an avalanche of history. We found relatively cheap parking (read: less than $4 for the first 20 min.) and saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the National Portrait Gallery, the First National Bank, the Second National Bank and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution.

Now we are in New Jersey, hoping to see some of New York City tomorrow.

Megatron

just so you all know, the old man of the mountain was actually Megatron! if you look closely its just obvious.





















transformers aside im going to try and get you guys back up to speed. Thomas left you in Maine and we are back in New York now. after we left Maine we drove south through Vermont, New Hampshire and into Massachusetts where we spent the night. like many of our nights we spent it in a rest stop. Thomas and Austin slept in the car and i slept outside because laying down is sooo much more comfortable than sitting bolt upright in a car seat. i have a good synthetic sleeping bag and so i may as well use it! i slept fairly well on the other side of a guard rail next to a fence on some leafs.

in the morning i woke up with frost on my sleeping bag to the words "eh theres a sleeping bag here". it was the construction workers who had just arrived to work on some project on the other side of the guard rail. they didnt bother me and i just picked up and moved my stuff, no harm no foul i guess :)

now this rest stop was closed over night. you could park there but you could not access the bathrooms all night! when they opened in the morning we put them to good use, brushing teeth, shaving and so on. the old guy who worked there told us we should have slept in the bathrooms because it was warm and dry, even suggesting that there was a little room off to the side of the bathroom which wouldnt smell bad.

we moved on and did some driving till we got to this small college in williamstown which had an art museum which was free. something in their founding documents or charter or whatever had something to the effect of "we dont show the pinnacle of art, the finest examples of each kind bla bla bla" more or less they flat out told us they had just random stuff. some of it was good and some if it was really bland or downright weird. they had some little boxes full of bits of wood, one with a little yellow ball and one with a dozen or so little pink balls each in their own little section. each of these had a little card explaining them. thats where the real art was. try and talk up a tin can splattered in paint that looked scraped from the bottom of the can

...the artests depth of color use symbolises humanity's struggle to find meaning in every day life through circles and the contrast they have against the flat background which shows how hard life is and how the bottom line effects everyone trying to attain roundess that the can represents as paint drips from the can embodying the way human civilization inevitabley falls...

thats not even good compared to some of the stuff they wrote about their "art"

they had some photos of buildings that were so bland it was impressive and drawings/paintings that looked like they were done by a 2 year old. to make up for it they also had some good art and a few copies of really awesome old books. they had some old Bibles and some bits of the book of the dead. they had some of the declaration of Independence and the response that King George sent back. they had some cool sculptures and some other odds and ins which were fun to look at.

we left that museum and went to another one down the street. it was called the Clark and a good portion of its pieces were bought by the Clark family which must have been loaded! this one was mostly paintings and photos. the security guards took a great interest in us, often following us ragamuffins from room to room.

once we were done we got back in the car headed for New York so Austin could be here in time to pick his suit up from the tailor. we got out into the middle of nowhere New York and the gas gage started running low. when the car is really cold the choke stays on and so we get awful gas mileage. im going to take that apart tomorrow if i get time and see if the choke heater is working or not. now by low i mean the little light came on and from past experience that means there is about a half gallon of gas left in the 10 gallon tank. when we stopped i put 10.4 gallons into the tank somehow ... also interestingly enough one system in the car has fixed its self. my rear wipers and defroster suddenly decided to work for the first time since ive owned the car. i guess all your prayers have gotten the angels who are keeping us safe to push and turn some wrenches too!

last night we arrived in a little town south of Rochester NY and decided to keep the hoser tradition alive. Austin and i did some stealth camping in the Henerys yard! we did scouting missions to figure out where to set the tent so that we would not get caught at night but would get noticed in the morning. we then brought over our gear and set to work putting up the tent. we almost got caught no less than 5 different times by people driving in and out of the driveway, people going to the back yard to get things and so on. the whole time we thought Phil was going to catch us some. we got the tent set up and went to sleep without being caught. at some point something walked past which might have been a cat. it snowed a little over night but it was that wet slushy stuff that just kinda collects in grass clumps and stuff.

in the morning we got up and said hi to the Henerys. no one heard us or saw us that night as far as we know: Mission Accomplished! mother instinct kicked in and we ended up getting some hot cider and cereal before we went over to visit Phil.

we found Phil and Carl, met Phils dad and then headed to the airport to pick up Bill. at the airport Phil found out how much we like to pick up change and teased us by dropping a little and watching us scramble to pick it all up.

after the airport Austin went to go get his suit and that just about brings us to the present!

I <3 Vermont

At the Vermont rest station we stopped at, we had a nice chat with the information person on duty. He gave us lots of useful information and even gave us some free food! He even allowed us to get some hot water from the coffee bar and we made some ramen. The next day, we made our way into Vermont and made some stops: Ben & Jerry's, a cheese store and an orchard store. We were able to secure free samples at the last two places, all of them delicious.

No free samples unfortunately.

After that, we made our way to New Hampshire, where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be. Unfortunately, my camera card ate some of those pictures, so I no longer have them. I might also mention that New Hampshire has an awesome motto/thing on their license plate: Live Free or Die. Truly, words to live by.
We continued toward Mount Washington and the Mt. Washington Inn, and, even though it was cloudy, there were plenty of awesome sights. (Pictures have been eaten.:( ) Maine was our next stop, which was nice, and we even got to visit the other Portland. The Atlantic was a first time see and there was an interesting park that used to contain Battery 201, a gunnery station (with a 25 mile range) that was closed at the end of WWII. Now we are in Massachusetts, after having driven back through New Hampshire. Our next main stop is back in New York, where Austin needs to pick up his suit for the wedding, which is on Sunday.

Desperate times...

my epiphany

After 8000 miles of driving this is my conclusion: Rest stop good, rain yucky.

frosty

last night we stayed in a wal-mart parking lot and it got cold enough we got some frost on the outside of our bags. Thomas and Austin decided to bail and go back in the car and i stayed out. some where around 4 or 5 am i wake up and see the lights of a car pointing at ours. i hear the transmission go into park and then the door opens. i see a flashlight shining on me and i can see my breath in the light and i see boots on the other side of the car. i wanted to take a picture but i didnt get my phone out in time. the flashlight comes over to me and i get nudged. its the police and he asked me some funny questions. he asked if we were moving to NY or just passing through. he asked what the stuff in the front seat was and a few other things and then went on his way.

i would just like to say thank you to all the people who have helped us out on our way - it really is hard to express how much it means to us to get a hot meal or a place to put our sleeping bags. simple things really do mean a lot to us!

This just in, scientists discover that canadian bacon is actually ordinary ham!

Saturday dawned on us and we made it to Bloomfield, near where the wedding will take place. We picked up Austin's suit, and took it to get tailored. That night we had an epic meal of manliness in a barn, which included venison, elk steaks, and wild turkey stew. We also got to hang out with some really great men who had killed the animals that we were fortunate enough to eat.

The barn we ate in is older than Oregon. (!)

When Sunday rolled around, we attended Covenant Life church. They even gave us some bread and bagels after the service! Since going to church had taken us part of the way there already, we finished the journey to Niagara Falls, which is pretty big.


Unfortunately, Canada has the better view of the falls. Enjoy it while you can Canada. (Note: this is a joke, I have no beef with Canada. Mmmm beef.) That sums up our weekend; and now, on to the northeast!

From Shamokin to Gettysburg

As we awoke on Friday morning, we were able to explore Shamokin, which is actually hollow underneath. The coal taken from under the town has been piled nearby into the largest man made mountain. The part for the Subaru we needed arrived before lunch and we were even treated to a delicious lunch of fantastic pizza. Our thanks to the Faus clan, who were most gracious to us. We then journeyed to Centralia, the abandoned coal mine town, which was little more than empty lots and streets leading to those lots. Apparently the underground coal fire, which caused the evacuation of the town, has died down recently. We did get to visit the Ashland coal mine and talk to some nice folks from New Jersey who were originally from the area, so we got a bit of a history lesson. Luckily the rain went away on our way down to the Harley Davidson factory in York, and even though we were too late to get the tour, we did get to go into their production showroom. Our last stop for the day was Gettysburg, which was full of awesome history. (And guns)


As night rolled in, we slept in another abandoned store's overhang. As an additional point of interest (to us), Ben finally overcame the lock that was plaguing him by judicial application of WD-40.

Some lovely fall foilage on the way to New York.

Chocolate? Did you say chocolate?

After an amazing breakfast at Penn State (pancakes FTW), we made our way to Shamokin to pick up some brake calipers for the Subaru, which we will get tomorrow. In between those times, we made our way to Hershey, Pennsylvania: the golden Land of Chocolate.


While the streets weren't paved with Mr. Goodbar, the smell of chocolate was in the air and we did get to see the process of making delicious, delicious chocolate. Apparently, according to some singing cows, it's the milk.


After our ride through the simulated factory, we wound up in a gift shop full of delicious items that we couldn't buy. We did make money though: Austin found a nickel! That's like half a mile right there.

We also saw a familiar looking truck.

super fun time

so yesterday night we crashed in a days inn parking lot and some guy told us we had to leave but it was ok because it was morning time. we packed up and moved across the street where i wired around my cigarette lighter. i put in a new socket and wired it to a solenoid that draws straight off the battery. we were having trouble getting enough amps to keep the inverter charging stuff and it kept making an annoying beeping sound telling us this.

anyway after that we headed toward Cleveland where we meet this guy named Evin. we were driving along toward the rock and roll hall of fame when this guy pulls up next to us. he motions for us to roll down the window and so we did. he tells us to follow him to his store and he will give us something for our trip... being who we are we follow the guy there and check it out.

this is inside the store.


they had so many cool action figures in cases and murals on the walls!

it was a sweet store and Evan hooked us up with some Wonka bars and fortune telling fish :)

after that we visited the rock and roll hall of fame and by that i mean we saw the outside because we didnt feel like paying 22 dollars EACH!

then it was on to Pennsylvania where we saw the trees starting to turn colors. sadly the dim light and high speed doesnt do it justice. in oregon we dont get to see fall colors on every tree as far as you can see!
once we got into PA we headed toward the town called State College where Pen State is. we met up with some friends of Thomas's that he met in Japan. we had dinner and then played a little Halo :) we got showers and a place to stay which was super nice. we really appreciate a roof over our heads!

Wild blue yonder

After our adventures in Kentucky, we made our way north to Ohio, then Indiana and Michigan.


Currently, we're back in Ohio, following Lake Erie towards New York. We've done a lot of driving and seen some interesting things, but I'll tell you about our stop in Dayton, Ohio.
On Monday, we spent about six and a half hours in the Air Force Museum, so it's safe to say that we all enjoyed it. The museum itself is about three large hangars, side by side, with additional buildings on either side. In said hangars, there are planes and history from the beginning of flight all the way to the space program. 'Wicked awesome' is a set phrase I would use to describe this place.


By far, one of my favorite 'periods' was the World War II portion of the hangar, where they had bombers and fighters from the greatest generation. Including a P-51 Mustang and some Japanese planes.


Austin really enjoyed the bomber jackets (as did I) and Ben was entranced by the engines (and guns!). Another thing that was exciting for me was getting to see some of the planes that my grandpa, who was in the Army Air Corps (later the Air Force), flew.


It would be very difficult to include all hundred something pictures that I took, so these will have to do. If you like history, airplanes, cool jackets, shiny things or any combination of these things, you should totally visit Dayton and check out the Air Force Museum.

Good ol' Kentucky times

So for the past two days, we have gotten to sleep in houses, eaten home cooked meals and have been treated very well by awesome people. Our thanks go out again to the Leis family and to Chuck, who both opened up their homes and fed us so very, very well. This morning we attended Church of the Savior and were again welcomed and treated very kindly.

Some of the sights we have seen recently include Daniel Boone's grave, Natural Bridge and Jessamine County's incredible bridges.

Natural Bridge

This is the only four arch stone bridge west of the Appalachians. (I think that's what I was told.)

insert something clever here

so after we got searched for drugs by the nicest cops ever - seriously, if we were in downtown portland we would have been cuffed and thrown in cars while they rummaged through our stuff. these guys were laughing and telling us about neat things to see around the state even while they still thought we had drugs and the K9 unit was going through our stuff.

one of the places they told us about was the Jack Daniels distillery! we took their free tour and learned about making tennessee "wwwhhisky". at the end of the tour we each got a glass of rather good lemonade. interesting fact: the county that ALL of Jack Daniels is distilled in is dry. they cant even serve their product under their own roof!

this is us with Jack in front of the cave spring that has been their water source since the start.


we also saw the grand ole opry house.


last night we spent in a rest stop just inside the kentucky border. the night started out kinda windy but dry so austin and i were just going to sleep under some tables. eventually it started to sprinkle and we kept hoping it would stop. once it became clear that it wasnt we bailed and ran for the car with all our stuff. it got crazy rainy with lightning and thunder to boot! sleeping in the car is no fun. it gets all humid even with the windows cracked and with 3 people in there its really not comfortable.

in the morning we packed up and headed toward mamoth caves. sadly our national park pass does not work there and so we were only able to see the free bits of the cave we found around the park.



we headed on and found a Lincolin statue.

at 4:23 we found a museum that closed at 4:00 but while walking back to our car we met these two guys who had seen our sign in the back window. we chatted with them for a bit and they told us about a saturday market type thing going on just down the street. we went and checked that out. there was some good art and some ... yeah stuff like paint splattered on random things.

anyway after that we saw churchhill downs (the kentucky derby, horse racing) and i had my "EVENT STAFF" shirt on so i just walked with this group of middle aged ladys who all had official looking badges. i gave my self a mini tour and then decided id better not push my luck and headed back out.



we saw the largest baseball bat outside the louisville slugger bat factory and then headed to Tomas's friend's house.

they have taken us in and been sooo good to us! we had an exelent home cooked meal and a shower! its the first real shower ive had since Ohio state University, something like a week and a half ago. i showered in a sprinkler that i found between now and then but it wasnt a real shower you know?

And there was that one time we almost got arrested in Tennessee

Another day, another Wal Mart parking lot. We started our travels heading east on route 64 toward Lynchburg, passing construction and what not. When we reached Lawrenceburg, the birthplace of Davy Crockett (King of the Wild Frontier), we were pulled over by the police. At this point we were wondering why, because the Subaru is incapable of speeding and we are up to date on our tags and everything. Ben chatted with the cops while Austin and I pondered why it was that we were in such a predicament. Eventually one of the (many) officers told us that there had been a call about a blue car from Oregon that had some fellows in it that had asked some folks if they wanted to buy some weed and were also smoking said pot. We chatted with the officers while they searched the car, using a K9 unit and removing all the bags from inside. They took away our pocket knives and checked our licenses, asked us if we had any "dope" and had us move so that their camera could record the event. (We were in the way.) The officers were really nice and helped us pack all our gear back in the car. While we chatted with them, they joked about giving us a bumper sticker that says 'We've already been searched, don't pull us over' to prevent further loading and unloading. We also got a free lunch at the David Crockett State Park! (Which is beautiful, by the way.) Austin said that it was the first time that he's been pulled over and gotten something good out of it. We had nothing to hide, so we weren't worried about it; and like we learned at Liberty Christian Fellowship, what makes us different is how we react to different situations. So all in all, we had a great time, got to meet some really great folks and saw another great town. The K9 officer told us when he was done that 'At this point, [you could tell us stuff and] we couldn't even call your mama.' Also, a shout out to the courteous folks at the state park and the officers who searched us, thanks for doing your job well and being so polite while doing it.

Our car being searched.

Crockett Falls

Something else to ride.