Of Bison and Old Faithful

Today was actually awesome.

We were on the road by about 6:20AM this morning-making our way out of Rapid City and back to never-ending Rt 90. Harry Potter got us through hours and hours as we drove through Wyoming, mostly looking at massive barren hills that were gradually turning into mountains. We felt like we might run into a covered wagon at any moment. Eventually we began to see the mountains ahead of us. Massive, snow covered peaks that started out basically the color of the sky and then began to become clearer. Eventually, we went off 90 and took a route that literally wound through the mountains. For about an hour, maybe two, we drove up and around windy mountain roads, getting higher and higher. The view was mind-blowing. We paused once to take a some pictures, but mostly eric tried to capture what we were passing as I drove.  The road leveled out again as we cleared the first set of mountains- we were in the Bighorn Mountains. We came back to good old Rt 90. 

Around 2 or 3, after like 9 hours of driving, we got to Yellowstone. The mountains had been massively rising as we got closer, and after entering the park we were pretty much blown away. Huge mountains, ridiculously blue mountain streams and lakes- not to mention Yellowstone Lake which is enormous and might as well be a small ocean. We stopped first along the shore of this lake, amazed at how massive it was. It has waves too- more waves than Lake Michigan had had, because it was quite windy off the lake. Today may have been the most beautiful day ever- I can't imagine better weather for this drive.

At one point while driving through the Yellowstone loop, we noticed the few cars ahead of us had stopped. Much to my delight- there was a Bison in the middle of the road! I have pretty much been obsessed with seeing bison ever since we saw a sign about them back in the Badlands. Everytime eric and i drove past cows or any kind of animal we basically pretended they were bison. This was our first real sighting! It was really big and awesome and just walking very slowly along the road. 

Speaking of wildlife- we received a lot of information on entering the park about the wildlife in Yellowstone. There are bison, elk, bears, wolves and a lot more. In case you are ever in the wildlife here are some tips :)

Make lots of noise while hiking so that the bears can hear you! Seriously. Eric and I plan on singing a lot tomorrow if we walk through the park :) 

Don't try to outrun bears- apparently they can run over 40 miles per hour. And they can climb trees too, so don't do that either. Your best bet is to play dead. And then I guess it eats you, I don't know.

Also, according to a lovely flyer we got that pictured a Buffalo impaling a human, buffalo can gorge you. So watch out.

Anyway, our next stop in Yellowstone park was Old Faithful, obvi. We arrived at a good time, people were just sitting and preparing for its next performance. I guess these days Old Faithful goes off about every 90 minutes. Apparently the time interval has changed significantly due to changes in the earth, and also from tourists throwing stuff in her, according to signs, (and probably global warming too. Just throwing that out there. :P )

Anyway, we waited for about a half an hour, while O.F. steamed. Then she gave off several false alarms- spurting a little bit and then going back to steaming. I thought maybe she had performance anxiety/stage fright- eric thinks she has a flair for the dramatic and likes to get people all excited first. Every time she went off, everyone got all camera-ready and stuff, and then it would stop and we'd all sigh. This happened several times, and then finally (after some encouragement on my and Eric's part, I think, we were chanting "old faith-ful! old faith-ful!)

she went! It was amazing. Actually so cool. Tomorrow we might try to check out some more geysers because they're pretty much awesome.

Ok by the time all of this was over, it was 5:30 ish. So we headed out of Yellowstone- stopping again to watch a herd of elk cross the road, and found our KOA campsite.  KOA is amazing. We have a cute little site with our tent all set up (which we are pros at, by the way), we had a great dinner, did some laundry, took warm showers and have free wi-fi! All in the middle of bear country! How cool! :) 

Eric is updating our map- we are about 3/4 of the way across the country. Pretty awesome. All in all, I think the past two days have been very very exciting. We saw amazing stuff that we've never gotten a chance to experience before- everybody needs to do this. period.

After today's long drive, however, I think we might take it a bit easier tomorrow. We're planning on going back into the park in the morning and "hiking" which, by hiking, we of course mean driving around and occasionally getting out and walking a few yards, then returning to the safety of our bear-proof car :P 

And with that, we now say goodnight!

xox

Laura and Eric

Badlands and Bad Connection

Hey everyone! Eric and i drove all day today through South Dakota, mainly on Rt 90 again. We went off course to take a scenic drive through the badlands- which was actually the most ridiculously amazing thing ever. I didn't really know anything like that really existed- pictures coming soon.

We are now in Keystone, SD at the base of Mt. Rushmore. We visited the mt. this afternoon- it was not really what I expected, honestly, but cool all the same. 

Right now we are at a little cafe that has free wi-fi. we are going to get some food and then return to our ghetto-fabulous hotel that we booked for tonight. It is so seriously in the middle of nowhere, no internet, no cell phone service... kinda creepy. So we wanted to post briefly so you (whoever actually reads this) know we are alive! :)

I would like to take this time to report that eric has a very exceptional talent of assimilating to any and all accents wherever we happen to be. I partially blame Harry Potter, because he spends a lot of our car time talking in a mix between british/scottish and cockney... but then whenever we go to a gas station or hotel/campsite, he begins speaking to the workers in whatever accent they speak to us in. I can only imagine what will happen to him when he moves to texas. It is weird. that is all.

The plan is to leave at 6AM tomorrow- we have our longest drive ahead of us- about 10 hours, to Yellowstone national park where we will be camping again! (Compared to tonight's hotel room, camping sounds very luxurious!) 

More on the sights of South Dakota to come!!

love,

Laura and Eric

Camping in Sioux Falls, SD

After stealing internet in Minnetrista, we went on a mission to find more dry ice. Eric used his bond-like iphone skills to locate a dry ice store. Seriously. It was called Continental Carbonix Company and i guess they sell massive quantities of dry ice. We walked in and asked if we could buy a block or two to put in our cooler. The guys working were SO nice and had the strongest minnesota accents possible. He loaded up our cooler for us and then let us take it all- free of charge! It was a very successful mission and we plan on sending them a postcard from mt. rushmore.

I drove today- about 5 hours until we stopped in Sioux Falls. We are stocked up with groceries which are freezing in the cooler, so we havn't had to buy any meals today. Arriving in Sioux Falls, a small-ish "city" in the southeast corner of SD, we followed signs to Falls Park. We passed some interesting things, including an actual pig slaughter-house type complex that smelled a lot like ham. It may have been the first time in my life I didn't want to eat bacon.

Sioux Falls is a really beautiful waterfall that spreads over rocks that are such an interesting color they barely look real. 

We explored the falls a bit, and then headed back a few miles to our KOA campsite, stopping to buy some Miller Lite Pounders. (I felt it would be most appropriate to buy our beer in pounder-form) 

Then we successfully pitched our first tent! It was easy! We used this power converter thing that we attached to my actual car battery to blow up our air mattress, so we're all set. The campsite has free wi-fi so even here in the middle of nowhere we are connected! We've been hanging out, talking to some campers, playing the guitar and planning our accommodations for tomorrow night in Mt. Rushmore. I am going to the store in a minute to buy charcoal so we can make s'mores. 

There are a lot 

of bugs.

Things we wish we had:

chicken cutlets

collapsable lawn chairs

a swedish masseuse 

a prius

Stealing internet in Minnesota

After we left Danielle's, we drove around a shopping center/apartment area until we could find some internet to steal. We are currently parked outside an apartment, using the internet to download more harry potter! We are obviously trying to get book two!

The plan for the day is to drive for a while until we feel like stopping to camp. We won't be able to make it to Mt. Rushmore today, so we're going to stop along the way before it gets dark. (Since we havn't practiced pitching our tent yet...and since we are afraid of bears.)

Eric is currently searching for dry ice locations so we can go grocery shopping and keep some food around for a few days. 

Not sure what kind of internet we'll have over the next few days- we'll be driving through south dakota, sioux falls, the badlands (sounds scary!) etc. After the past few days of staying with our friends, in beautiful houses, with great meals.... things are about to change! :) So cross your fingers for us!!

xox

Laura and Eric

P.S. 

A few statistics:

Total miles so far: 1,292

Most for gas so far: $3.99

Least for gas so far: $3.77

(havn't paid over $4 yet! this is a big deal to us!)

total hours spent in car: approx 25

number of free meals: 5

songs written: almost one. (named Soda)

Harry Potter audiobooks completed: 1.1

Chicken cutlets eaten: 5 (one went bad)

Internets stolen: 1

Minneapolis, MN

After driving through Madison a bit more (and discovering Bassett street!), Eric and I headed for Minneapolis. Another easy drive, about four hours. We finished Harry Potter book one, and began book two but then discovered that the file was messed up! (That’s what I get for illegally downloading it, I guess). This was our first big disappointment of the trip. Hopefully we will be able to download a good version. Otherwise we will be forced to like, listen to music. Or talk to each other or something.

 While driving through Wisconsin, we saw lots of signs for cheese. I got a lack-of-caffeine headache around 1 so we stopped at some taco place so I could get a diet coke. This happened to also be the location of several large plastic animals. A mouse with a big wedge of Wisconsin cheese, A gazelle or some leaping animal, and an enormous orange moose. Obvious photo-opp.

The drive was smooth- eventually I took out the guitar and we attempted to write songs about driving in Wisconsin. We wrote a really great song when we entered Minnesota. It had something to do with wanting a soda.

 We easily met up with Eric’s friend Danielle- and she took us around in her car to give us a tour of the twin cities. We saw Minneapolis and St. Paul- saw some cool artwork, a new theater overlooking a great view of the Mississippi (Don’t tell my mom but I had no idea the Mississippi went through Minnesota!), and beautiful St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Danielle taught us some vocab-  “Minn” means ‘water’… so Minnetonka is big water, Minnestrista, where Danielle means, means twisty water, and I guess Minnesota is soda water? J

Then, we went to the Mall of America! I did not realize this would be in the cards for us today- but what an experience it was. There is an actual roller coaster/log flume/entire amusement park inside of this mall. What?

Next, we headed out to Danielle’s home, which is in Minnetrista? This was another installment along our tour of beautiful homes in America. Danielle’s parents have an absolutely gorgeous house on a lake- (you know Minnesota has 10,000 lakes…) – an amazing view and awesome home. 

Danielle’s father is an Australian native (how cool!?) and he was preparing dinner for us when we arrived! He grilled steak, chicken, corn on the cob and vegetables. It was deeelicious. We ate and drank wine and Eric and Danielle reminisced over their days in Archmere. (Danielle’s family moved to Minneapolis three years ago, but she went to high school w/ Eric in Delaware).

After dinner, we had ice cream with dark chocolate and cherries for dessert, and then we started playing and singing around their piano J We even sang some traditional Australian songs with Mr. Thomson!

Madison, WI

After a scrumptious brunch in Chicago (thanks to our patron, Andrew)- we left for Madison. The 3 hour drive passed quickly with Harry Potter! (We're getting close to the end of the first book- very climactic!)

Wisconsin is pretty chill- lots of signs for cheese, seriously. The Ready's live in Middleton which is a little bit outside of Madison. Their house is absolutely amazingly gorgeous, it is so nice to be here. Mark and Jorie were SO nice and fun- they took us into Madison and gave us a full tour of the city (which happens to be the capital of Wisconsin, everyone).  Madison is really cute! It's pretty much a big college town, UW is huge. The Ready's took us to "The Terrace" which is where our Madison-ian friends told us to go. It's a really cool part of the university campus- an outdoor spot right on the lake (Mendota i think, the other lake is Monona...) It feels like a german bier garten! We got a pitcher of beer and eric had 'brat', Jorie and I had chicken sandwiches.   It was really awesome sitting out by the lake at sunset- which was beautiful- and talking about life. :)

When we left, they drove us around Madison a bit more, showing us the capitol building and the convention center built on lake Monona by Frank Lloyd Wright. 

When we got back- eric and I watched hairspray. :) We slept very well and now are having breakfast and doing laundry before we get ready to leave! We are thinking about walking around and exploring Madison again this morning before we leave for Minneapolis to stay with Eric's friend Danielle.

So far we have not been "roughing it" very much :)

ciao!

xox

Laura and Eric 

Chicago

This is the morning of our third day on the road! Eric and I are sitting in Anna's apartment in beautiful chicago- it is almost 10 and we slept in which felt amazing. 

Yesterday, after sleeping in my old room in pittsburgh, we woke at 6AM and began the drive to Chicago. Eric drove first, then we drove in shifts, taking turns driving on 80 and sleeping. After we both had sufficient car-napping, we spent the last hour or so of the trip listening to Harry Potter :) It was an eight hour drive, but we gained an hour as we crossed a time zone! 

                 driving into Chicago

So we arrived in Chicago right around 1 PM. We wanted to go to the beach! It was difficult finding a place to park, but eventually we parked the car and got to the beach on North Ave. After spending a week at a real beach, on a real ocean, the lake didn't really do it for me. But it was still nice to get some sun, and the water was warm, and it was a gorgeous day!

We hung out at the lake for a few hours, eating ice cream when we realized we hadn't really eaten anything more substantial than almonds and one chicken cutlet so far in the day. (The chicken cutlets are going fast, but the dry ice is amazing at keeping our food cold! It actually froze the pasta...)

So then we walked around a bit, took a bunch of pictures, and eventually ended up back at the car- then we head for Anna's apartment. We drove down Fullerton which goes through a beautiful part of town- old brick houses and big trees- it was amazing and I want to move to Chicago.

Anna's apartment is awesome- and it was so great to see her, Andrew, and Anna's roommate Erica. when we got here we showered and eric vacuumed. (There was going to be a party and he obviously wanted to help clean!) We went down the street to a really great restaurant (called Dunleys) and had dinner outside, then we came back and finished getting ready for the party. Andrew taught me how to play the 12 bar blues on the guitar, and eric learned how to play Anna's melodica. (a keyboard that you play by blowing air into it...)

We made champagne punch and the girls had yummy trader joes food- it was a really fun night and we got to meet some of Andrew's high school friends, some chicago friends, and Kent Haina came (a friend from CMU)! 

So now here we are, relaxing at Anna's and planning to leave for Madison in a few hours. 

We'll be staying with my family friends the Ready's tonight!

xox

Laura and Eric

p.s. i'm having trouble uploading photos right now so I will add more later!

Pittsburgh

So I obviously was much later than scheduled this morning, and didn't actually get to Eric's until 1. Then we had to repack the car and inflate the spare tire (which was ridiculously low- oops) and this took a long time...so we didn't really leave Folsom until 3PM. 

the trunk is very full...

Some essential items we packed:

Our Heelies, a kite, my guitar and other musical instruments, a book of the best scenic drives in America, a sledgehammer, ponchos, many various electronics...

Then we stopped at genardis where apparently you can buy dry ice! (Don't touch it, it burns) So our food will stay cold, if not frozen, for a few days now. We had an easy drive to Pittsburgh while listening to Harry Potter book 1 on audiotape...um amazing.  We arrived in the burgh with plenty of time to visit a few people and take lots of random pictures around cmu

campus with the map...

The map was eric's project- a giant map of the US on poster board which we plan to carry with us everywhere, take pictures with, and mark our route. 

We were going to grab pizza at Mineo's, since it's obviously the best, but then we decided to go to a restaurant we had never been to before. It's in a part of shadyside which we never really knew existed until we found it by accident a couple weeks ago (when I got lost, obviously). It is called Cafe Brugge- and the food was amazing!  

 yum!

After dinner (which we didn't finish until 10:30) we decided we were tired and wanted showers. Soo here we are in alderson, showered and relaxing. I think we'll mostly be sleeping for the next 6 hours although Colin is arriving in town soon and coming to play. But we are planning on leaving at 6am tomorrow and taking shifts between driving and sleeping as we head to Chicago!!!! The early start will be worth it when we get to chicago and spend the afternoon on the "beach" on Lake Michigan. :)

SO goodnight!

xox

Laura and Eric

Official Day One- leaving LBI

It is 8AM and I am sitting by the bay in Surf City. A little back-story- Eric was here wednesday night to support me as I competed in LBIdol. It was totally embarrassing but also pretty fun. I had to do a sing-off at the end, but I won! I sang "Walking on Sunshine" and it was actually pretty terrible. My whole family plus some came out to support me though, which rocked, and I had becky behind the bar cheering me on! 

Our friend Rob, my brother Lee, his wife Dani, Eric and Me

at the fine establishment the Surf City Hotel in LBI

So anyway, this morning I mostly re-packed my stuff, and I hope I don't have too much. But I probably do. I am leaving in about an hour, and heading first to my brother's workplace to pick up something very important that I forgot to pack.... my heelies!!! 

Anyway, from there I will go to Eric's and then we'll really figure out what we have/need/can't live without/etc. Hopefully by around 1 or so we will be back in the car headed to pburgh! None of this is really very exciting yet, as we have done the pburgh trip together millions of times. 

But it's still pretty cool that this is all finally happening! Yay! We will write again when we have something more interesting to say :)

til then!

xox

Laura

On the east coast...

Although today is not the official start of our trip- eric has joined me for a day down the shore here in Surf City, Long Beach Island. I think it is appropriate that we are beginning our adventure on the coast of the Atlantic. Highlights of the day were finally being able to go in the ocean which got above sub-zero temperatures, discussing details of our upcoming journey, and preparing for my performance in LBIdol tonight--- just what it sounds like, a singing competition at the surf city hotel. Bek will be bartending and my extended family will be in tow since you win by applause. Should be amusing.

Eric leaves early in the morning tomorrow to complete his portion of packing, and I'll spend my last day down here with the family. Friday morning I will leave the island and get eric in Philly- then we'll be off! First night in pittsburgh- for old times sake. And by old times, I mean 2 weeks ago when I was last there.

OK so this being the official first post, some details of our trip's first few days involve stopping in cities such as Chicago, Madison, and Minneap

olis- visiting friends and having good times. Then we venture into the great expanse of this country, with our first major national park stop being Mt. Rushmore!

 

Feel free to comment with thoughts, suggestions of places to see/things to do, or invitations for us to stay in your homes if you are along our route! :)

We will try to update with status-es (stati?) and p

ictures as frequently as possible!

That's all for now!

xox

Laura

(and eric sort of but he's on the phone right now and did not really contribute to this post)

(he wants to be sure that he is not lumped with my thoughts and opinions at all times throughout this blog, so we will try to be clear about who is participating in the posts) 

:P