the mud 

the dock 

on the boat 

some hill next to some lake 

a reflection

when its all over, a dream will it be. ryan is brushing off his blog responsibilities. WBWC 88.3, in the garage! now to cedar point, supposedly the greatest theme part ever.

what a day of fun-filled adventure.

gas: $3.09, sandusky, ohio. remember $50 at shell [i didn't get my receipt].

drive home and matchbox twenty is playing (push u around). funny at first because i was doing my mime with tourette's impression to the song. now the song has like 20 seconds left and it has a little sober tone now. this is an end to something big. we are all starting something new. most seem to be ready. its just crazy because i'm so aware of this transition as it is taking place. we are ready and are looking forward to this change. but what we are leaving is something we've known for most of our lives. once the transition is complete, what we are changing from, feelings, memories, youth, will disappear. that's what we fear i think.

the ohio state fair was three weeks ago. coldplay just came on and ryan hates them. let's see if we'll get through the song without a comment. i've realized that once rye leaves, i gonna get really lonely. i really miss kim, but i've always had someone there with me this whole trip, so i haven't yet been truly alone. and i've been so used to having him around day and night, i've kinda gotten used to it. i know he's sick of my shit through. i wonder if we would have survived as roommates.

the flats - west bank

[okay, so the pic experience may be over because hello has not stopped working. i'll keep working it.]

this sign thing is getting ridiculous. all because indiana blows. ryan's driving is getting ridiculous too. i know he is getting pretty sick of my stupid-ness too. these toll roads suck. we just passed a lovernight trans company truck that i swear i saw a few days ago. weird to be able to say that. driving into chicago sounds like so long ago. as soon as it begins, its begins to end. i hate that. i think sometimes that he wishes the trip would end already. i had hoped to take more pics of the changing landscapes of america, but it seems to be all the same shit.

bridge: centennial bridge, mississippi river, iowa/illnewah (waaay back).

so i passed edison's birthplace. add that and the winery thing for kim and i to do on our way back.

into parma, ohio and we've found the most rockin station i've heard in a while. most resembles idobi. i'll try and get the station number. talk about cleveland; empty streets blocks, no cars.

bridge: veteran’s memorial bridge, danvers river, cleveland, ohio.

we are so effin lost, its ridiculous. we will probably get shot because we've been in the most shady areas imaginable. i'm trippin out cuz its so foggy right now. maybe 1 or 2 cars on each road. a silent ambulance. i don't think i ever want to come back here again.

aclu reception. yes, pictures are back! for now. 

indiana

[so all this rambling is from a notebook i've been writing in the past month now. ran out of space in one notebook, so was forced to use whatever scratch paper was lying around. well i seemed to have lost some of that scratch paper so looks like i'll be skipping a few days. that might include chicago. sitting at my desk at work and my LCs and I are watching this dog swimming in the dirty water on tv and they are trying to save it. its hot outside. yesterday was my three year anniversary. i love you sweetie. okay, back to the days inn pages.]

this whole hurricane biz is horrible! all those people in the superdome? why do all these horrible things happen when i'm in another state than home? more times than not i can remember being in a hotel on vacation watching cnn. this, pope est mortuus, earthquakes, missing children, the primaries =). being on the road actually makes this all hit closer to home for me. last night i drove for the first time ever over the mississippi. crazy to think that down that river at that very point in time, all hell is breaking loose. gas is rising like no other. tomorrow we are still supposed to get the remnants of her.

tomorrow we'll be somewhere else. ryan better be writing everything i am saying because he is truthfully 4 seconds from beating my ass…honestly. i didn’t have my lights on. i hate tucking folls.

crazy how each state we plow through all has different styles of freeway. indianans are tight wads. chicago is falling apart everywhere. chicago = scary, with tons of black people. no correlation though. midwest sunsets are cool. our picture thing in front of each state sign is sucking. indiana and iowa don’t like to cooperate. ethan gay for city, but hates poor people. other book full. ethan has no balls. going to south bend.

gas: $3.19 South Bend, Indiana.

there is a winery i'd live to stop at but we just passed it so we're not i guess. ryan is trying to sing, whistle, and make animal sounds to the tunes of this stp cd we are listening to. its not funny. haven't heard from jessie since i left. i hope she is well. saw a crazy looking lake a second ago. mossy around the edges. 10 foot sticks sticking straight out of the water everywhere.

missing a page

had our first potential major scare. drove for an unknown amount of time on the freeway with the back wide open. clothes and briefcases could have gone flying but by the some . . .

gas: chicago, illinewah - $2.95

illinewah part 1

sitting at burger king at some truck stop in illinois. its the morning after our sleep in the parking lot. off to chicago.

crashing into an ocean of clouds which means a. weather will be cool in chicago, and b. the views won't be that great from the tall buildings. i'm sure they will be beautiful, just not perfect. i still can't believe we made it this far yesterday. 55 miles to go. tonight's dinner will consist of a lovely selection at the hard rock cafe. driving through iowa i saw a few signs of places i want to go with kim when we drive home, including the silos and smokestacks museum, mormon trail museum, and hoover's birthplace museum. by then though, i might be all tired out from seeing historical stuff.

tunnel: somewhere in illinois.

freeways are becoming a little more urban. traffic a little more heavy. those clouds seem to be most prominent toward the south. these can't be remnants from the hurricane though. everyone keeps saying we [as in ryan and i] are gonna get dumped on. i have my reasons, but i don't think it'll be that big of a deal. all of a sudden everyone began to drive like retards. they are all going about eight over, which i'm alright with doing, just not used to everyone doing it.

bridge: calmumet river bridge.
bridge: des planes river bridge.

i think we are going the wrong way.

iowa

still in nebraska. how do they get all the corn off the stalks or whatever? gotta be some crazy machine. holy cow, lincoln is ghetto.

gas: lincoln, nebraska - $2.59

i've grown to like nebraska. maybe i'll check out their law school. iowa sucks. i guess no sign for us. all these places are too humid. and rye is as blind as a bat. so i guess i'll be driving most of the night trips. we are trying to get as close as we can to chicago tonight. we are not so bad on time actually. granted its dark, but seems like a lot of trees are surrounding the freeway.

took a nice detour through all of des moines' businesses. i think ryan is leaving sunday morning which kinda puts a little urgency on driving through these states. both of us have managed to keep us going at about 5 over the speed so far.

had my first yawn. doing good though. mile 163, eb I-80, iowa.

gas: iowa city, iowa - $2.59.

westy->ethan->north platte->ryan->lincoln->ethan->iowa city.

too many bugs in the midwest. humid too.

nebraska

can’t see the rockies now. a thick haze has settled over d-town. i didn’t realize until this trip that colorado has too many rolling hills. i thought in my head that all the foothills and plains were actually pretty much flat.

gas:
westminster, colorado - $2.59
north platte, nebraska - $2.89

4:10: leave north platte, ne.

spent approximately 25 minutes at the bryants’. sherry is awesome. didn’t get to see jim cuz he was sick, but saw jeff, jason and one of his kids. these people are certainly living it up on that lake. i might stop by their place again on the way back with kim.

now for the really long haul.

26 miles

camping done. just drove through my old life. the city in the distance, that perfect colorado sunset. weather, music, lights. now i gotta get to boulder.

goodbye boulder. grown to love you. learned more about your roads than i have in the past five years combined. goodbye west-side. you are my home.

Saved (2004): mandy moore was as hawt as expected. the other jena chick i grew to really like. so many issues going on that its hard to keep up. not really hard. i'm not sure why i said that. it was actually not that bad of a movie. it was totally unique, but still had a bit of that "teen movie" feel to it. see it.

saw mom squared and kri this morning before i left, which was really nice. my ass is still sore from biking. sitting next to rye now going for the long haul.

i can see my breathe

of course it takes e-money to take care of the issue. as expected, i knew where it was the whole time. got there just in time for it to start raining as we began to set up the tent. but after a long, wet, muddy setup of camp, here i lay in the tent to the backdrop of ryan's snoring. part of me wants to drive back tomorrow afternoon. part says to just chill for another night. we'll see. seven hours of driving, one hour in the rain, ryan is still snoring. i turn off the last lit light for miles around. its cold, freezing actually, and still rainy and windy. and here's one more to add to my list of beds so far on this trip.

on a boat right now. its like driving the reefer on gta. we've already broke down once and dared to touch a dam. breakfast was good, but i'm gaining weight in massive quantities.

now ryan thinks i'm writing poetry. make that twice broke down. current depth 144, winds approaching 2 knots. its like ryan is han (or lando) trying to get the falcon into light speed. ryan pulled a tom and fell into the water with his cell in pocket. sucks for him.

well we got rained on. sitting in tent now.

lost

i'm going through a most major transition these last few days. the last hurrah. coming to terms that high school ended longer than it even lasted. not only that though..

parshall, colorado. someone look it up for me and see where it is. i really think i've been here. i don't know why i have the familiarity because it is pitch black in every direction. i swear we just passed the continental divide and i swear i've taken a picture in front of this part of it. i think its been another hour of driving. only good thing about this nonsense is the great tunes i get to jamb to.

it took my direction and we found the first entrance. now he think he knows where it is, but i'm 90% sure he's going in the wrong direction. i told him i thought i knew where it was, but i'll let him screw us up even more. this is also putting my jeep to the ultimate test. his boat lights are out now. this is funny because i pride myself on my direction skills. if i only had a chance to prove my worth. where the lake should be, are stretching plains for as far as the eye can see.

now we are getting into pretty thick forests. he thinks he may have found it...looks like sam has failed us once again. i'm gonna have to take charge.

we're going camping

the sporadic rain made the skies clear. and tom is being a retard. he think i'm writing poetry. its so funny. something tells me that this trip will be our last major event together. its so funny to see how much these guys are becoming their dad. not saying that's a bad thing, just funny.

we are rolling through one of the cutest little mountain towns i've ever seen. not sure what its called though. spent 10 minutes trying to park the boat in this place too.

hours late, we march on. the dark clouds are covering dusk. and straight ahead is horrible lightning. flashing beyond the horizon. like frodo and sam seeked mt. mordor, we (i'm frodo, ryan is sam) hunt for, what i'm predicting, will be a rainy campsite. i imagine that what we are driving through is very beautiful. and i actually think i've been on this road too. the last bit of light blue sky is being swallowed by the darkness. black from the sky, black from the clouds. i think ryan might not know where he is going. oh yeah, and the best part is that he has never been here and doesn't really know where it it. we are just driving.

we are seriously in the middle of nowhere. all around me is black. no lights except the lightning. this might turn out more fun than what i ever expected. kinda glad tom couldn't go because he would be bitching so much right now.

we'll lead as two kings

i brought like 150 cds and randomly picked one to listen to. single file of all the shit luck. i should have brought their acoustic cd that i bought from them which never worked. i could take it back to all their parents houses and ask for a new one.

its so nice not having to be in such a rush to d-town. nice to just enjoy the drive. getting a headache, my shampoo began bubbling, and my little chocolates have become liquid chocolate in foil. on the bright side, there is no sign of the bee. CO is so beautiful driving through. sucks that only a few get to see the pretty parts of UT. most just see the crap driving through. everyone going through CO gets to see these amazing mountains. funny too cuz its the middle of the summer which is probably an ugly stretch of time for this place.

five mph traffic on the freeway in the rain. good to be home.

gas: $2.75 glenwood springs; $2.59 westminster.
tunnel count: 5, #4 being the eisenhower.

who’s the man wit the masta plan?

ironic. i’m driving in the freaking utah desert and closing in on moab. and last night was the first time in san andreas that i drove up into bone county, up north of san fierro. which is exactly what i’m driving through. the only difference is i was driving a monster truck on gta. i even just passed a teepee. there is no reason why every one of you reading this should not own this game. the bastards that own it but never tried to pass it, well that’s just blasphemy. the weather so far is amazing. usually i have to keep the windows up and AC rollin cuz it gets too hot. but now its almost cold. traffic’s light. my drinks took about 20 minutes to lose its chill. so my juice now just tastes like warm apple cider. just saw my first near head on collision of the trip.

um, yeah. i think there is a moth in my car somewhere. or a really big freaking bee. the worst part is i think it came through an air vent behind the dashboard and came straight toward my head. i literally had to duck.

first gas reading: provo, utah at $2.289 (costco). i think i want to make rye write the blog each day of the road trip. i could still write in this. [this is all written in a little handy-dandy notebook. stood next to john kerry yesterday!] and i think i’ll post all this later and it can be my pulitzer prize for best something.

okay now its getting hot. and still no sign of mothra. i think its time for food.

on your mark, get set,

not an easy goodbye. makes me question if this is all right. as i got on the onramp in provo, the most beautiful peter gabriel song came on (don't give up). i can feel my jeep struggle a little more than usual because its much more weighted down.

KOHS rawks!! i will certainly miss it out there. i wonder about the stations in dc. i see a bunch of rap, then about 1 of each other station, and a whole lotta rap. which i guess isn’t that bad for my wigger ass. this is so dangerous what i am doing. i’m in the fast lane, writing this, and trying to figure out what U2 song this is. all that and i’m actually just distracted by my suitcase rocking back and forth. this is nuts.

i have practically every U2 full release ever except for rattle and hum and like one other. plus i have their b-sides, but i have never heard this song playing now. and what i mean by that is, KOHS rawks!!

i just saw this fire out toward the lake in spanish fork. if you kind of squint your eyes to make it look like the smoke is really miles away, it looks like an atom bomb went off at some testing site in nevada. that would suck and all, but at least i had my camera for it. i’m going to try driving with my shirt off the whole way so that maybe i won’t just burn my arms. instead i’ll burn random sections on my upper bod. now KOHS is playing what sounds to be bjork, singing in what sounds to be what i assume is icelandic. its so rad. she’s pretty amazing. now the ramones. you all wish you had this station back home. and next was the smashing pumpkins and just like that, the signal fades.

wait, its back with a little morrissey. i hope the UHP tears up this little kia’s ass. go back to new mexico [nothing against nm]. so weird that a year ago i was drivin through these canyons listening to the starting line. now here i’m driving listening to their new one.

i’m now debating on who i see or where i should go tonight. ponder this, i must. sucks because kim and i had many, many talks since this whole mess began. we went through every possible negative and possible thing there is and how we’d get through it all. we never talked about how shitty those random moments throughout the day where we’d get that little glimpse of each other in our head. those will be some of the hardest parts of it all. treasure what i just said cuz i rarely talk about kim and i on here.

the chief is dead

pic to come. nuts that it happened while i am here. more and more and more and more and more blog stuff to come. just been so busy. you understand.