We made it home! We hung out in the hotel until 11:30 and then went to the game (I fell asleep again for most of it) and they were winning, things were good, then they gave up a home run in the 8th or 9th and we decided to leave. We sulked out, and I had a feeling that they would win if we left....that maybe John is right, that we are bad luck this season. We're being punished via the baseball cosmos because we didn't renew our season tickets. Whaddya know, they pulled it together to win in the 12th inning, and just as we peeled out of the city limits.
We stopped a few times on the way home, one time simply to scrape the dead bugs off the windshield, it was gross. So we are responsible for many bug lives being lost. Poor nasty things. We saw tons of Fireflies in Iowa and they were such a pretty sight floating out in the cornfields (though not so pretty plastered against glass). We made it home about midnight, and I was so thankful John had taken the wheel in Des Moines because there was mega road construction on 35 and it was dark and scary and I know I woulda freaked out. YAY FOR SCHMOOPIE :)
We haven't been able to stay awake hardly today, John's fighting the cold I gave to him and he didn't get any sleep last night, and I can't get moving on anything, not even unpacking or laundry. We're so wiped. I think I'm still fighting whatever cold thing I had but it never quite materialized into anything major, I'm hoping it doesn't. We both dread getting up at 6:30 am tomorrow.
We had a great journey and our city seems small now the way it always does when you go exploring, work seems pointless when the bigger scheme is on the horizon, but we like our little life, and we were very happy to see Boo and she was waiting for us by the door. She twirled herself around on the floor and purred and meowed and purred and meowed. John said while he was up watching tv (unable to sleep because he's so stuffed up) and she was sitting in the beadbag, all of a sudden she started "chirping" at him randomly. Our baby, what a little nut! Well, it was a great trip and we can't wait to plan our next one, but we are very glad to be home!
Total mileage: 2428!!
Estimated gas cost: $200 (OUCH!)
Monday, July 11, 2005
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Just Call Me Chappy
I'm buggin because my lips have been chapped the whole trip and they don't seem to be getting any softer even though I've been wearing gobs of vaseline on them. I haven't been drinking enough and so I think my biggest problem is that I'm dehydrated. John's been enduring me well, like he always does, and he's just bubbling with baseball energy :) We had fun last night at the game even though we lost. The stadium was better than Jacobs Field, but it was SO HOT. I think it was 92 and our seats were right in the sun so we roasted until the shadow of the stadium made it to us. (Don't worry moms, we both had sun hats and sunscreen on). There were many Twins fans there so we fit in until another Twins fan got into a fight with a Royals fan and the whole side of the stadium was more into the fight than the game. Then we became unpopular and some freaky chick behind us was yelling and whistling so loud that I ended up leaving the area for two innings until she left. On a positive note, they had fresh squeezed lemonade that totally rocked--I had two of them, then I had one of the "baggie" dollar dogs and I even managed to stuff myself with a footlong grilled dog with peppers and onions, YUM!!!! John even liked it with BOTH the peppers and onions :) John had three beers and two dollar dogs. It was really neat to watch outdoor baseball and we are looking forward to todays game. We did get shady seats for today, though :)
Before the game, we made our way to the Science Center and had some fun with all the hands-on stuff, pushing little kids outta the way so we could play (I'm kidding). We got tickets to the "Extreme Screen" movie, "Forces of Nature" and it was filmed/photographed so well, it was really amazing. Then we sat in on a planetarium movie and I fell asleep right away so I can't give a review. John said it would've been better had it been just the regular show instead of the movie. I was crabby after my nap.
Next post will probably be from home!!! We'll be leaving right after the game and hope to make good enough time to get home before midnight. THe road construction here is worse than Mpls (if that's possible) so ya never know. We'll be burnin the midnight oil tonight, babies! See you all soon :)
Love & kisses, R&J
Before the game, we made our way to the Science Center and had some fun with all the hands-on stuff, pushing little kids outta the way so we could play (I'm kidding). We got tickets to the "Extreme Screen" movie, "Forces of Nature" and it was filmed/photographed so well, it was really amazing. Then we sat in on a planetarium movie and I fell asleep right away so I can't give a review. John said it would've been better had it been just the regular show instead of the movie. I was crabby after my nap.
Next post will probably be from home!!! We'll be leaving right after the game and hope to make good enough time to get home before midnight. THe road construction here is worse than Mpls (if that's possible) so ya never know. We'll be burnin the midnight oil tonight, babies! See you all soon :)
Love & kisses, R&J
Hot Dogs with Everything
Even though we lost last night to the Royals, we were able to enjoy yet another night of dollar dogs. So here is my in depth analysis of dollar dogs from the three stadiums we have been to:
Royals stadium - small hot dogs in plastic bags. Not too much to them, more bun than hot dog but you cannot beat the price. But what makes this promotion great is that you can also get dollar peanuts and small pops! 3 bucks for a meal. Cannot beat that.
Jacobs Field - amazingly similar to Royals stadium (do they ship the unsold hot dogs from the Royals stadium to the Jake?) but without the dollar peanuts and pops.
Metrodome - and though the metrodome may suck as a stadium, the hot dogs come out on top in this three way battle. Bigger, more flavorful and not stuck in a small plastic bag, they are the winners. But they should add dollar pops to the dome as well!
Royals stadium - small hot dogs in plastic bags. Not too much to them, more bun than hot dog but you cannot beat the price. But what makes this promotion great is that you can also get dollar peanuts and small pops! 3 bucks for a meal. Cannot beat that.
Jacobs Field - amazingly similar to Royals stadium (do they ship the unsold hot dogs from the Royals stadium to the Jake?) but without the dollar peanuts and pops.
Metrodome - and though the metrodome may suck as a stadium, the hot dogs come out on top in this three way battle. Bigger, more flavorful and not stuck in a small plastic bag, they are the winners. But they should add dollar pops to the dome as well!
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Drive In Fun
Had to post a quick blog this AM while I eat my English Muffin with grape jelly, oj and tea (John's having his with peanut butter, coffee and milk). Our night at the drive in was so perfect :) We waited in line forever, and the guy asked if I was old enough to see an R-rated movie to which my face turned a dark shade of beet, thankfully it was too dark to tell, and he told us that Fantastic Four was sold out so we opted for War of the Worlds/Batman Begins. Once we got settled, we watched War of the Worlds which sucked royally. The acting is HORRIBLE and they spent about 45 minutes in one frickin scene. Two thumbs down. During the movie, John was a love and went to get us a huge bucket of popcorn, some soda and remembered that I had been craving red licorice earlier in the day and came back with all of that!!!! How sweet is that?! And someone was setting off fireworks during the beginning of the movie so we got a free fireworks show too! Batman returns was really pretty darn good, except for a little bad acting in parts (the female lead is pretty bad, and the scarecrow dude is terrible) but the story, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Liam Neeson make up for that. Two thumbs up. And to top that off, I saw a shooting star!
As we left at 1:45am or so, some people started having some words and I thought it was going to get ugly, but they tore off in a huff. As we tried to find the freeway in the dark and followed signs that made no sense whatsoever, we took a wrong turn and ended up seeing an accident where someone drove their car through a guardrail and off a hill. The cops were laying down the flares all over the deserted road, and as we slowed down to look the cop gave me a solemn look. We wondered how they ever found the people on this deserted road, and as we turned ourselves around we saw that another guardrail was busted through. Then we remembered that there was a helicopter with his lights following someone on the ground during the movie. We wondered if it was some high speed chase. Either way, it freaked us out and we were glad to get "home" to bed.
Now we're up, it's a new hot, sunny day and we plan on going Union Station to hopefully see their showing of Forces of Nature, have lunchies somewhere and then off to cheer the Twins at the very cool looking Royals stadium. We saw it last night as we came across that accident, and it was all lit up and pretty looking. We can't wait to see the Twins, and from the sounds of it there are more Twins fans in the stands than Royals fans!! Whoo-hoo!
More later, have a good Saturday everyone :)
Love to all, R&J
As we left at 1:45am or so, some people started having some words and I thought it was going to get ugly, but they tore off in a huff. As we tried to find the freeway in the dark and followed signs that made no sense whatsoever, we took a wrong turn and ended up seeing an accident where someone drove their car through a guardrail and off a hill. The cops were laying down the flares all over the deserted road, and as we slowed down to look the cop gave me a solemn look. We wondered how they ever found the people on this deserted road, and as we turned ourselves around we saw that another guardrail was busted through. Then we remembered that there was a helicopter with his lights following someone on the ground during the movie. We wondered if it was some high speed chase. Either way, it freaked us out and we were glad to get "home" to bed.
Now we're up, it's a new hot, sunny day and we plan on going Union Station to hopefully see their showing of Forces of Nature, have lunchies somewhere and then off to cheer the Twins at the very cool looking Royals stadium. We saw it last night as we came across that accident, and it was all lit up and pretty looking. We can't wait to see the Twins, and from the sounds of it there are more Twins fans in the stands than Royals fans!! Whoo-hoo!
More later, have a good Saturday everyone :)
Love to all, R&J
Friday, July 08, 2005
Fireworks, Porn & Jesus
Well, Missouri so far is a row of billboards pimpin' explosives, xxx truckstops and religion, or just signs that say JESUS with rainbow stripes. We made good time today. John started the drive today, drove us into St. Louis. We decided against going to the Epoxies show in Chicago because it was backtracking along the toll road (and we're cheap) but also cousin Pauly had so much stress going on that we didn't want to add another thing for him to worry about. He's just getting back from vacation and sounded like he was totally swamped at work. So we'll plan a trip to Chicago some weekend when they're available. Maybe we can catch The Bomb playing :)
We had a lovely breakfast of pastries and biscuits and gravy at the Comfort Inn before heading out. For lunch near the arch in St. Louis, we broke our vow of never again eating at TGI Fridays and it was actually quite good, and so far has been digesting fine for both of us. Now we just had some Taco John's and I'm stuffed after only 1 taco and Potato Oles. I might save my other taco for later. We're going to relax a bit, watch the Twins game and then in a couple of hours head out to see a movie marathon at the DRIVE IN THEATRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're excited :)
The line to get into the arch in St. Louis was about 2 hours long, so we thought taking pictures was good enough for us. It was blistering hot and we wanted to eat and move along. We did take some pictures of the Busch Stadium, but they didn't look like they were giving tours so we just headed back to the car. If I forgot to mention before, we did take a really cool tour of Jacobs Field, though it wasn't as good as the tour of Pac-Bell Park in San Francisco. We're very excited for the Twins games tomorrow and Sunday! GO TWINS!
We'll plan to be home Sunday night, late!! We can't wait to see King Baby Boo!
Love to you all :)
R&J
Roadkill report: not too much today (yay!) only a couple poor little fuzzies and then one thing that looked exactly like an Armadillo, though I have no idea if they're popular in these parts.
Todays mileage: 329.5
Todays tunage: Fugazi, Road Trip Mixes, Dickies, Groovie Ghoulies
We had a lovely breakfast of pastries and biscuits and gravy at the Comfort Inn before heading out. For lunch near the arch in St. Louis, we broke our vow of never again eating at TGI Fridays and it was actually quite good, and so far has been digesting fine for both of us. Now we just had some Taco John's and I'm stuffed after only 1 taco and Potato Oles. I might save my other taco for later. We're going to relax a bit, watch the Twins game and then in a couple of hours head out to see a movie marathon at the DRIVE IN THEATRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're excited :)
The line to get into the arch in St. Louis was about 2 hours long, so we thought taking pictures was good enough for us. It was blistering hot and we wanted to eat and move along. We did take some pictures of the Busch Stadium, but they didn't look like they were giving tours so we just headed back to the car. If I forgot to mention before, we did take a really cool tour of Jacobs Field, though it wasn't as good as the tour of Pac-Bell Park in San Francisco. We're very excited for the Twins games tomorrow and Sunday! GO TWINS!
We'll plan to be home Sunday night, late!! We can't wait to see King Baby Boo!
Love to you all :)
R&J
Roadkill report: not too much today (yay!) only a couple poor little fuzzies and then one thing that looked exactly like an Armadillo, though I have no idea if they're popular in these parts.
Todays mileage: 329.5
Todays tunage: Fugazi, Road Trip Mixes, Dickies, Groovie Ghoulies
Leaving Cleveland
We had a blast in Cleveland! So the first day there we went to the Indians vs. the Tigers game in the wonderful outdoor stadium and watched the awesome firworks, then spent two hours trying to get out of downtown traffic! On Tuesday, we went to the Museum of Natural History and saw all the cute animals and exhibits they had there. We got to talk to a lady who was feeding Randy the Red Fox and playing with him and she told us all about his life and how he came to the Museum. They think he was raised by humans and then dumped off somewhere, and because he hadn't been raised with foxes, he hadn't learned how to hunt so he'd seek out humans for food. He was extremely tame and one nice couple found him whining outside in their yard, and he was so tame they brought him in the house and were feeding him like a puppy. He was too tame to return to the wild so he has a nice home now. She fed him a frozen rat and he had fun playing with it and trying to hide it from her. We also saw Spaulding the Grey Fox, and he was so cute, stalking the area waiting for his food, jealous that Randy had a rat. There were little chipmunks chasing each other around, a few deer, a wild turkey, two turkey vultures, two playful otters that we watched show off for us, several beautiful but sleepy owls, a little crabby looking Peregrin Falcon, and a gorgeous Bald Eagle. I think there might have been more, will add in as I recall them. It sounds like they try to release the animals into the wild when it's possible, so I was happy to hear that. I get sad sometimes seeing them cooped up, but when you meet the nice people that take care of them and see how much they care and love the animals, it makes it easier. And you can see that the animals love them, too. We wanted to catch a planetarium show there, but they were all done for the day. Then we went to see the Christmas Story House in the Hood :) That night we rocked with the Epoxies at the Agora. The Phenomonauts opened first, and the headlining band was the Aquabats. They were goofy, but neither impressed us too much. Phenomonauts had a better sound; new-wave-rockabilly, a little funky.
On Wednesday, we got up and went to the laundromat to do some clothes. It reminded me of our courtship when we'd go do laundry together. There's something about the laundromat that I just love, it forces you to relax and it smells all fresh (usually) from the dryers. So we made googly eyes at each other while waiting for our clothes. It was very cute. Then we drove and parked downtown and bummed around all day. We went to the Science Museum and saw the usual science exhibits and I got bugged by all the bratty kids. We then caught a showing of the Mystery of the Nile. It was great and beautifully filmed, but I kept getting nauseous from the helicopter shots so I closed my eyes for a lot of it. It was neat except for the parts when people were mean to the camels.
We came back into town for the Dickies show about 10pm!! It was awesome! We got to meet all of them (except one of the guitarists) and we were on the guestlist, even!! We felt so special! Their set was amazing and I jammed big time (so did honey bear, so cute!!), much to the dismay of my aching bod which I think is coming down with something. The club itself was a shitehole and the attitude was enough to choke on. I kept tripping over passed out or hunched over punks and was glad we didn't even consider drinking ANYTHING as I doubt the place even had a toilet, or if it did you'd have to walk through a complex labrynth of staircases that lead to nowhere and "porch lizards" skanking at every turn. And to make it all the more pleasant, they were in GROSS violation of any sort of fire codes and the place (no shit) was about 110 degrees with all the nasty sweaty bodyheat being generated from the swirling mass of freaks in the center dancefloor. We were drenched after being there for about 10 minutes and then had to endure the second acts entire set. And that band was soooo bad, I can't even begin to describe its hideousness, a lot of skinhead OI OI crap that this world would be better without. It was all worth it though when our band finally came out, so that rocked. Good times!
We are now in Effingham (hee hee), IL in a cozy little Comfort Inn. Yes, the Comfort Inn's are our favorite places to stay now. I don't think we've had better luck at any other hotel, and they're cheap too! More bang for your buck at the Comfort Inn, YAY! This AM we had a good breakfast at the Perkins that was a couple doors down from our hotel and then hit the road. We had a day of ALL driving and it was actually quite nice to be on the road again. Cleveland had cool highlights for us, but not what you'd consider a touristy place at all. I started us out today, and had a nice go of it for the most part. I did have a couple of dizzy spells that freaked me out, but I've found that panicking only exacerbates the problem so with John's help I was able to get my composure quickly. Just a little scary to be going 70 and the road all of a sudden looks like its swirling all around you. I hope that was just a fleeting thing.
We saw a live baby deer eating some grass in a nice wooded area, and s/he was so cute. I wish I would've had the camera out. There were loads of semi's today and we felt like we were playing leap frog all day trying to pass them. John took over driving after my 5 hour shift and brought us through the awful rush hour traffic and road construction crap in Indianapolis. It reminded me of one of my fave shows growing up, One Day At A Time, which was set there. We stopped for Arbys (my fave!) just outside of Indianapolis (and before Terre Houte) and had a nice lunch. Nothing terribly eventful happened on the road, there were several accidents but nothing major. There are gobs of rubber bits left on the road from trucker tires everywhere you look. Oh, and I saw two graffiti's from the old Trust Jesus guy (remember him??). I always mean to use the time in the passenger seat for writing and brainstorming ideas for crafts and such, but I haven't yet. All I've done is looked at the road atlas and stared out into the massive sky and watched the trees. And manned the CD player. It's great.
Well, again my honey has beat me to bed and I'm afraid if I don't join him I'll get my second wind. And I am so tired because after all the excitement last night, I couldn't hardly settle my mind down to sleep!!
Love to all, rock hard ;)
R&J
Roadkill report: Lots of smeary/chunkies....not a good day for any raccoon it seemed. :(
Cleveland mileage: 1074
Todays mileage: 456
Todays tunage: Dickies, Road Trippin Mixes, Ramones!
Restaurant report: Taco Bell-3x, Hardees-1x, Subway-2x, Arbys-1x, Quiznos-1x, Perkins-2x.
On Wednesday, we got up and went to the laundromat to do some clothes. It reminded me of our courtship when we'd go do laundry together. There's something about the laundromat that I just love, it forces you to relax and it smells all fresh (usually) from the dryers. So we made googly eyes at each other while waiting for our clothes. It was very cute. Then we drove and parked downtown and bummed around all day. We went to the Science Museum and saw the usual science exhibits and I got bugged by all the bratty kids. We then caught a showing of the Mystery of the Nile. It was great and beautifully filmed, but I kept getting nauseous from the helicopter shots so I closed my eyes for a lot of it. It was neat except for the parts when people were mean to the camels.
We came back into town for the Dickies show about 10pm!! It was awesome! We got to meet all of them (except one of the guitarists) and we were on the guestlist, even!! We felt so special! Their set was amazing and I jammed big time (so did honey bear, so cute!!), much to the dismay of my aching bod which I think is coming down with something. The club itself was a shitehole and the attitude was enough to choke on. I kept tripping over passed out or hunched over punks and was glad we didn't even consider drinking ANYTHING as I doubt the place even had a toilet, or if it did you'd have to walk through a complex labrynth of staircases that lead to nowhere and "porch lizards" skanking at every turn. And to make it all the more pleasant, they were in GROSS violation of any sort of fire codes and the place (no shit) was about 110 degrees with all the nasty sweaty bodyheat being generated from the swirling mass of freaks in the center dancefloor. We were drenched after being there for about 10 minutes and then had to endure the second acts entire set. And that band was soooo bad, I can't even begin to describe its hideousness, a lot of skinhead OI OI crap that this world would be better without. It was all worth it though when our band finally came out, so that rocked. Good times!
We are now in Effingham (hee hee), IL in a cozy little Comfort Inn. Yes, the Comfort Inn's are our favorite places to stay now. I don't think we've had better luck at any other hotel, and they're cheap too! More bang for your buck at the Comfort Inn, YAY! This AM we had a good breakfast at the Perkins that was a couple doors down from our hotel and then hit the road. We had a day of ALL driving and it was actually quite nice to be on the road again. Cleveland had cool highlights for us, but not what you'd consider a touristy place at all. I started us out today, and had a nice go of it for the most part. I did have a couple of dizzy spells that freaked me out, but I've found that panicking only exacerbates the problem so with John's help I was able to get my composure quickly. Just a little scary to be going 70 and the road all of a sudden looks like its swirling all around you. I hope that was just a fleeting thing.
We saw a live baby deer eating some grass in a nice wooded area, and s/he was so cute. I wish I would've had the camera out. There were loads of semi's today and we felt like we were playing leap frog all day trying to pass them. John took over driving after my 5 hour shift and brought us through the awful rush hour traffic and road construction crap in Indianapolis. It reminded me of one of my fave shows growing up, One Day At A Time, which was set there. We stopped for Arbys (my fave!) just outside of Indianapolis (and before Terre Houte) and had a nice lunch. Nothing terribly eventful happened on the road, there were several accidents but nothing major. There are gobs of rubber bits left on the road from trucker tires everywhere you look. Oh, and I saw two graffiti's from the old Trust Jesus guy (remember him??). I always mean to use the time in the passenger seat for writing and brainstorming ideas for crafts and such, but I haven't yet. All I've done is looked at the road atlas and stared out into the massive sky and watched the trees. And manned the CD player. It's great.
Well, again my honey has beat me to bed and I'm afraid if I don't join him I'll get my second wind. And I am so tired because after all the excitement last night, I couldn't hardly settle my mind down to sleep!!
Love to all, rock hard ;)
R&J
Roadkill report: Lots of smeary/chunkies....not a good day for any raccoon it seemed. :(
Cleveland mileage: 1074
Todays mileage: 456
Todays tunage: Dickies, Road Trippin Mixes, Ramones!
Restaurant report: Taco Bell-3x, Hardees-1x, Subway-2x, Arbys-1x, Quiznos-1x, Perkins-2x.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Epoxies ROCK HARD!!
Yes, indeedy kids, we got to rock and roll with the Epoxies at the Legendary Agora Ballroom! It was amazing! They were the second opening band so we didn't get blessed with a full set, but good enough. Letssee if I can recall the set list (in no particular order): Need More Time, Synthesized, Please Please, You, Radiation, Wind Me Up, Molded Plastic, At The Seams, We're So Small...if I think of any others, though there weren't many more, I'll put them in later. We also got to see them eating in the cafe (that's a part of the venue and a great idea) after the show! I was tempted to try to talk to them and get photos, but since I'm a chicken shit we decided to just drool over them from outside. Then we hussled to the car because there was an adult rehabilitation group home thing across the street and lots of leering "gents".
Earlier in the day, we made our pilgrimage to the house where A Christmas Story was filmed, and as I was too scared to get out of the car (talk about 'hoods, holy crap, we have nothing like that in Mpls) John took the outside-the-car pix of the house and I shot a few from inside the car. It was cool to see it, but we hustled outta there, too! Many parts of Cleveland seem in gross disrepair. In fact, we have yet to see anything resembling a "ritzy" area at all. The buildings all seem to be in a dire state, though they have TONS of potential if someone would just spend the time and money. It looks like revitalization efforts are starting, but mostly with the sports venues. There were some "luxury" condos that looked fairly nice on the inside (from what we could see), but from the outside you would've thought it was a run down old hotel or something. It makes me sad to see these cities that could be vibrant and bustling and are mostly ignored. The lake (Lake Erie) looks, in places, like a garbage dump as there is industry in great, great numbers covering its expanse. Trees and greenery are virtually non-existant along the lake, at least in the downtown area. And not to flog a dead horse, but their streets make less sense than all the streets in St. Paul. They're numerical, but in no order whatsoever. For instance, you'll be on 55th, and three blocks later you're on 93rd.
Well, we're going to head off to the laundromat to get our stinkies cleaned, then we're off to explore more of downtown, see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lakes Museum, perhaps a tour of Jacobs Field, maybe catch another game, then off later to Peabody's to see (and meet!) the Dickies! I've been assured that we are on the guestlist, and the bass players family is reportedly making the drive from Michigan to see this show so it's sure to be a fun time! Though apparently SIX bands are playing in total, which is why we may try to catch a game before cuz we really don't want to sit through so many bands. Ok, enough yammering, I must shower. John will try to get more photos posted though we're still having no luck :(
Love to all, R&J :)
Earlier in the day, we made our pilgrimage to the house where A Christmas Story was filmed, and as I was too scared to get out of the car (talk about 'hoods, holy crap, we have nothing like that in Mpls) John took the outside-the-car pix of the house and I shot a few from inside the car. It was cool to see it, but we hustled outta there, too! Many parts of Cleveland seem in gross disrepair. In fact, we have yet to see anything resembling a "ritzy" area at all. The buildings all seem to be in a dire state, though they have TONS of potential if someone would just spend the time and money. It looks like revitalization efforts are starting, but mostly with the sports venues. There were some "luxury" condos that looked fairly nice on the inside (from what we could see), but from the outside you would've thought it was a run down old hotel or something. It makes me sad to see these cities that could be vibrant and bustling and are mostly ignored. The lake (Lake Erie) looks, in places, like a garbage dump as there is industry in great, great numbers covering its expanse. Trees and greenery are virtually non-existant along the lake, at least in the downtown area. And not to flog a dead horse, but their streets make less sense than all the streets in St. Paul. They're numerical, but in no order whatsoever. For instance, you'll be on 55th, and three blocks later you're on 93rd.
Well, we're going to head off to the laundromat to get our stinkies cleaned, then we're off to explore more of downtown, see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lakes Museum, perhaps a tour of Jacobs Field, maybe catch another game, then off later to Peabody's to see (and meet!) the Dickies! I've been assured that we are on the guestlist, and the bass players family is reportedly making the drive from Michigan to see this show so it's sure to be a fun time! Though apparently SIX bands are playing in total, which is why we may try to catch a game before cuz we really don't want to sit through so many bands. Ok, enough yammering, I must shower. John will try to get more photos posted though we're still having no luck :(
Love to all, R&J :)
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Uploading Problems
Well, we've been trying to upload some pix for the blog, but it only worked that one time. Now it says DONE but it LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We just got back from the Indians vs Detroit Tigers game at Jacobs Field which I have to admit, was frickin amazing. The stadium is totally beautiful and Coco Crisp hit an in-the-park home run! That's a first for me, I don't think I've seen ANY player hit one of those, certainly no one in the dome. The dome just doesn't seem conducive to in-the-park homers. Maybe if we had a new sweet stadium as nice as Camden Yards or Pac-Bell Park...
Then we got to see the most awesome fireworks display! The whole place stayed for the show and they turned off all the lights and had an awesome fireworks display, in addition, you could see all around the sky all the other fireworks going off. They went on and on! It was great being able to see the gulls flying overhead all through the game (I LOVE gulls!!) so I was happy to see more live animals having a nice time :) I'm sure they get lots of hot dog treats after the game.
I suppose I should sign off since I'm trying to shake off some residual crabbiness from the drive home (that John so calmly handled) and a headache. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!
Love to all :)
The Schmoopies
FYI: We are now in Eastern time zone--1 hour ahead--so I'll just post as the current time we are in.
We just got back from the Indians vs Detroit Tigers game at Jacobs Field which I have to admit, was frickin amazing. The stadium is totally beautiful and Coco Crisp hit an in-the-park home run! That's a first for me, I don't think I've seen ANY player hit one of those, certainly no one in the dome. The dome just doesn't seem conducive to in-the-park homers. Maybe if we had a new sweet stadium as nice as Camden Yards or Pac-Bell Park...
Then we got to see the most awesome fireworks display! The whole place stayed for the show and they turned off all the lights and had an awesome fireworks display, in addition, you could see all around the sky all the other fireworks going off. They went on and on! It was great being able to see the gulls flying overhead all through the game (I LOVE gulls!!) so I was happy to see more live animals having a nice time :) I'm sure they get lots of hot dog treats after the game.
I suppose I should sign off since I'm trying to shake off some residual crabbiness from the drive home (that John so calmly handled) and a headache. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!
Love to all :)
The Schmoopies
FYI: We are now in Eastern time zone--1 hour ahead--so I'll just post as the current time we are in.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Cleveland Comfort!
We are now settled into the CUTEST little Comfort Inn with more ammenities than expected in Cleveland, Ohio! We're a day ahead of schedule and sittin' pretty in the A/C. It's bleemin hot out there and we're tired of the road, as fun and fancy free as it is; it's nice to have a place to call home for a few days. The drive was fairly nice and I drove us out of South Bend and into Ohio, just a bit past Toledo (hometown of Klinger from MASH!). Then we stopped off for a tasty Hardees burger and refreshed and stretched a bit, along with about 200 other travelers, and then John took the wheel. So far, I've done most of the driving, but I'd rather do the highway driving than the city driving, so I expect John will end up behind the wheel for most of the time by trips end, or at least, most of the stressful driving, so me not complaining. And he's the better navigator.
We had a little continental breakfast at the EconoLodge (which consisted of white bread, pre-packaged bear claws, cereal with no milk in sight, coffee, and hot water but no tea bags...no matter since we brought our own peanut butter and a variety of tea) and were on the road by 8:45am so it was nice and cool when we set out. We drove past Notre Dame but saw no sign of Touchtown Jesus :( The drive was uneventful so I won't bore with details of rows and rows of corn fields and trees, and we've seen some cute live animals to counter all the dead ones we've seen. There were lots of cute dogs at the rest areas, and then we saw a muskrat at roadside chewing on some grass and when we got to the Comfort Inn, a little chipmunk ran right past us! How cute :)
Our plan is to loaf for a few hours, go watch the second game of a double header at Jacobs Field and watch fireworks at the stadium! They even have a shuttle that we can take so we don't have to drive into downtown. I'm gonna go join my honey on the bed and loaf watching tv.
ROCK HARD :)
Love to all, R& J
Roadkill Report: another deer, lots of stiffy raccoons, many more indistinguishable furries :( More sadness, pooh.
Todays mileage: 252.3
Todays tolls: $2.40 Indiana/Ohio border, $6.10 Cleveland at the 161 Exit
Todays tunage: The Pogues, The Epoxies, Road Trippin Mix CDs. Lots of time without music today.
We had a little continental breakfast at the EconoLodge (which consisted of white bread, pre-packaged bear claws, cereal with no milk in sight, coffee, and hot water but no tea bags...no matter since we brought our own peanut butter and a variety of tea) and were on the road by 8:45am so it was nice and cool when we set out. We drove past Notre Dame but saw no sign of Touchtown Jesus :( The drive was uneventful so I won't bore with details of rows and rows of corn fields and trees, and we've seen some cute live animals to counter all the dead ones we've seen. There were lots of cute dogs at the rest areas, and then we saw a muskrat at roadside chewing on some grass and when we got to the Comfort Inn, a little chipmunk ran right past us! How cute :)
Our plan is to loaf for a few hours, go watch the second game of a double header at Jacobs Field and watch fireworks at the stadium! They even have a shuttle that we can take so we don't have to drive into downtown. I'm gonna go join my honey on the bed and loaf watching tv.
ROCK HARD :)
Love to all, R& J
Roadkill Report: another deer, lots of stiffy raccoons, many more indistinguishable furries :( More sadness, pooh.
Todays mileage: 252.3
Todays tolls: $2.40 Indiana/Ohio border, $6.10 Cleveland at the 161 Exit
Todays tunage: The Pogues, The Epoxies, Road Trippin Mix CDs. Lots of time without music today.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
South Bend, IN
Tuning in from (a shaky connection) in South Bend, Indiana! We're in a freaky little, but clean, motel. The kind of motel like in that movie Drugstore Cowboy where Heather Graham o.d.'d on Dilaudid and it freaks me out. Thankfully, there is no "under the bed" in this place. It's boarded up, and I'm not going to try to look any further to see if anything is making a home under it! Actually, it's not that bad. I'm embellishing a bit, it's a bed and a tv and a clean bathroom so I can't complain.
The Field of Dreams was as magical in person as it is in the movie. I had tears welling up a few times as we watched dads having catches with their kids. I almost really lost it when we walked into the corn. It really is a dream, and so beautiful. The drive out there is so pleasant, you almost forget you're driving. I drove us out of Iowa into Rock Island, IL, which I have to say is a sad, dilapitated place. Maybe it was just the area we were in, but all the homes and storefronts in Moline and Rock Island were falling apart. We left as quickly as we came in and decided we'd just try to get closer to Cleveland. I know Cleveland has been called "The Mistake on the Lake", but there are plenty of things we'd like to see while there. Since we're a day ahead of schedule, we should be in Cleveland tomorrow in time for the better part of a double header at Jacobs Field, it's dollar dog night and they'll be having fireworks at the stadium. That's a lot better than our plan to be driving during any July 4th traffic.
John took over driving in Rock Island and brought us onto the interstate and did a fine job of navigating the hellish traffic on the toll road as we came into Indiana. We wondered what in the hell the toll money is used for as the whole freeway was ripped up and looked as if it'd been that way for quite some time. The traffic was horrible, and the nice people on the scenic route all but disappeared and were replaced with monster truck driving sacs who tried to muscle their way in and out of every available space. I would've been freaking out too much so I was glad that we had traded seats earlier. John is so calm in situations like that. He's just great :)
Now we're going to head off to bed early and get a good start in the morning. We get to sleep with the sounds of fireworks blasting off every 5 seconds...at least, I hope they are fireworks! I'll sign off now.
Nitey-nite, bitey-bite, love to you all!!
R&J
Roadkill report: Mostly raccoons, a black and white kitty, lots of indistinguishables. I was sad for all.
Todays mileage: 360
Todays tolls: $0.60 Portage, IN; $1.55 South Bend, IN
Todays tunage: Stranglers, Suburbs, Son Volt, Super Tramp, Suzi Quattro, Swingers, Cajun stuff (can't remember who), Tesla, Tommy Roe, Beatles, Big Country, Bobby Darin, The Bomb, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly/Crickets, Camper Van Beethoven, Cheap Trick, Cornershop, Cyndi Lauper, Donna Summer, English Beat, Gloria Gaynor, Johnny Horton, Lipps Inc, Utah Saints, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett, KISS, Monkees, Naked Raygun, Sex Pistols, Social Distortion, Stiff Little Fingers, Tom Petty/Heartbreakers, Voice of the Beehive and U2.
The Field of Dreams was as magical in person as it is in the movie. I had tears welling up a few times as we watched dads having catches with their kids. I almost really lost it when we walked into the corn. It really is a dream, and so beautiful. The drive out there is so pleasant, you almost forget you're driving. I drove us out of Iowa into Rock Island, IL, which I have to say is a sad, dilapitated place. Maybe it was just the area we were in, but all the homes and storefronts in Moline and Rock Island were falling apart. We left as quickly as we came in and decided we'd just try to get closer to Cleveland. I know Cleveland has been called "The Mistake on the Lake", but there are plenty of things we'd like to see while there. Since we're a day ahead of schedule, we should be in Cleveland tomorrow in time for the better part of a double header at Jacobs Field, it's dollar dog night and they'll be having fireworks at the stadium. That's a lot better than our plan to be driving during any July 4th traffic.
John took over driving in Rock Island and brought us onto the interstate and did a fine job of navigating the hellish traffic on the toll road as we came into Indiana. We wondered what in the hell the toll money is used for as the whole freeway was ripped up and looked as if it'd been that way for quite some time. The traffic was horrible, and the nice people on the scenic route all but disappeared and were replaced with monster truck driving sacs who tried to muscle their way in and out of every available space. I would've been freaking out too much so I was glad that we had traded seats earlier. John is so calm in situations like that. He's just great :)
Now we're going to head off to bed early and get a good start in the morning. We get to sleep with the sounds of fireworks blasting off every 5 seconds...at least, I hope they are fireworks! I'll sign off now.
Nitey-nite, bitey-bite, love to you all!!
R&J
Roadkill report: Mostly raccoons, a black and white kitty, lots of indistinguishables. I was sad for all.
Todays mileage: 360
Todays tolls: $0.60 Portage, IN; $1.55 South Bend, IN
Todays tunage: Stranglers, Suburbs, Son Volt, Super Tramp, Suzi Quattro, Swingers, Cajun stuff (can't remember who), Tesla, Tommy Roe, Beatles, Big Country, Bobby Darin, The Bomb, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly/Crickets, Camper Van Beethoven, Cheap Trick, Cornershop, Cyndi Lauper, Donna Summer, English Beat, Gloria Gaynor, Johnny Horton, Lipps Inc, Utah Saints, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett, KISS, Monkees, Naked Raygun, Sex Pistols, Social Distortion, Stiff Little Fingers, Tom Petty/Heartbreakers, Voice of the Beehive and U2.
"Is This Heaven? No, It's Iowa."
Yes folks, we have landed in Dyersville, Iowa! We're tucking into the Comfort Inn with a Subway sammie and free wireless internet access :) I ended up driving the entire way, if you can believe it!! I didn't freak out at all! The weather is PERFECT and the scenic route is the shizz-nit. We saw tons of birds of prey, including a bald eagle. Lots of sad roadkill, though, including two deer, a bunch of birds, raccoon, and one little fuzzy *something* that was indistinguishable because it was upside down with it's little legs sticking up in the air. I was sad for the roadkill. I suppose it's food for the smaller birds, so I'm happy for them. We decided not to backtrack to LaCrosse for the night since we were truckin right along, so we just kept on the way to Dyersville and here we are! It's been a perfect day and we had such a lovely and romantic drive :) We went through almost 3 of the driving CDs already. We also drove without music for awhile cuz the sound of the wind was so nice.
We waited for 45 minutes at the airport for the rental car, then went back to pack up and say goodbye to Boo, ran to get snacks and were on the road by 1:45. We started the drive with some Minor Threat tunage, and then decided that was getting us a bit too wound up for city freeway driving and put in a mellow driving mix. We stopped at the Green Mill for lunch in Winona, MN (where Winona "The Noner" Ryder was born!) and stretched our legs a bit. Now John's checking in on the Twins game and is now convinced that they only won because we weren't there. I'm getting very sleepy so I may sign off.
Todays milage: 287.1
Todays tunage: Minor Threat, A Flock of Seagulls, ABBA, Alessandra, Alice Cooper, Bedrock, Buddy Holly/Crickets, Buggles, Cheap Trick, Clash, CCR, Divinyls, Eddie Cochrane, Elvis, English Beat, Fat Boy Slim, Feelies, Flirts, Folksmen, GoGo's, Golden Earring, Hooters, Icicle Works, Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Nash, Kim Wilde, The KLF, Leftfield (w/John Lydon), Madonna, Missing Persons, Mitch & Mickey, Moby, Monkees, Neds Atomic Dustbin, New Order, Pixies, Queen, The Saints, School of Fish, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Steelers Wheels.
We waited for 45 minutes at the airport for the rental car, then went back to pack up and say goodbye to Boo, ran to get snacks and were on the road by 1:45. We started the drive with some Minor Threat tunage, and then decided that was getting us a bit too wound up for city freeway driving and put in a mellow driving mix. We stopped at the Green Mill for lunch in Winona, MN (where Winona "The Noner" Ryder was born!) and stretched our legs a bit. Now John's checking in on the Twins game and is now convinced that they only won because we weren't there. I'm getting very sleepy so I may sign off.
Todays milage: 287.1
Todays tunage: Minor Threat, A Flock of Seagulls, ABBA, Alessandra, Alice Cooper, Bedrock, Buddy Holly/Crickets, Buggles, Cheap Trick, Clash, CCR, Divinyls, Eddie Cochrane, Elvis, English Beat, Fat Boy Slim, Feelies, Flirts, Folksmen, GoGo's, Golden Earring, Hooters, Icicle Works, Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Nash, Kim Wilde, The KLF, Leftfield (w/John Lydon), Madonna, Missing Persons, Mitch & Mickey, Moby, Monkees, Neds Atomic Dustbin, New Order, Pixies, Queen, The Saints, School of Fish, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Steelers Wheels.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
We're Leaving!
We're up and getting ready to go. I'm trying to pry myself out of this sleepy haze so I'm blogging and having an iced coffee with vanilla soy milk with the Food Network on in the background. John, aka Mr. Energy, has beat me into the shower and is raring to go. We're going to have breakfast somewhere downtown and then hop the LRT to the airport to fetch our rental car. We should be getting a Corolla, we hope, or something similar. It's sure to have more performance capabilities than our poor little Saturn that seems so sluggish on the uptake. I have waves of nervousness as I don't care much for fast moving vehicles and certainly not for the morons that operate them (except us, because our driving is perfect). I might see if I can take the first shift since I can find comfort in familiarity. I dread thinking of what new and busier cities hold, traffic and road condition-wise, but at least we're not going to LA. I wouldn't last 6 seconds on the 405.
Well, I'd better get off my skanky ass and get in the shower! Time to roll!!!!!!!!!!
See ya'll on the flip side :)
Well, I'd better get off my skanky ass and get in the shower! Time to roll!!!!!!!!!!
See ya'll on the flip side :)
Friday, July 01, 2005
Leaving Tomorrow And It's Not Soon Enough
I'm sick of being here at work when we've still got TONS to do at home. Since we were off celebrating my bday yesterday, I didn't do any work on my gifts so now I gotta hop to it when I get home. Gotta run some laundry, clean the bathrooms, run the dishwasher, stop by the store to get our road snackies, then to moms to drop our keys off. She gets to take care of little King Baby Boo who doesn't like my mom; she's never forgiven her for taking her to the vet about 10 years ago. We'll miss our little kitty-nut :(
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
