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!