At 10:32pm on Wednesday, September 17th, we arrived back in Los Angeles, CA, and of course quickly showered and went out for celebratory drinks & mac and cheese. Here is a quick summary of our trip:
Total Miles Driven: 9,995 Total States Driven Through: 35 Total Stops for Gas: 34 Number of Speeding Tickets: 0
Best Quotes: “Did you paint your own nails?!?” – Museum Employee in Brownsville, OR (to Betsy) “Is that your sister? She’s beautiful!” – Man on street in New York City (to Amanda) In Chicago: Amanda: “Where’s the big face thing?” Info Stand Employee: “Down the stairs and to the left.” “Oh my God! Stop! …I think.” – Amanda “My hand-clapping video is so awesome in my head.” – Betsy Pelak: “Drinking in the middle of the day is like a video game.” Amanda/Betsy: “Why?” Pelak: “I don’t know.”
After some fun times in Pennsylvania, it was time to make the loooong trek all the way down the East coast. We made it through the hurricanes and finally got to Amanda's aunt's in Orlando, Florida. Here, we met: Cat Dillon, Cat Damon, Cat Lauer, and Brad Kitt
Amanda spent the night with the kittens and her family while Betsy stayed in Port Charlotte with her grandparents. The next day, after a very brutal game of dirty clubs at Aunt Betty's, the Road Trippers were reunited! The evening consisted of a nice dinner at the retirement community, swimming in the pool (first swim of the ENTIRE trip), and a friendly game of shuffleboard. Which was fun, until one of us lost by approximately 68 points.
The next day we left for Baton Rouge, snagging the last few gallons of regular unleaded fuel in the state of Florida apparently, because after we left, they shut all the gas stations down. Due to the hurricane, 25% of the nations oil refineries had been shut down. Luckily, it didn't hinder our adventure too much. We drove on...
Thanks to our friends in the band Streamline, Mike Hogan and Jon Scholl, we had a place to stay the night.
We were also treated to a gourmet Emergency Meal dinner, courtesy of Chef Jon. Here you go, learn something new (Disclaimer: Jon Scholl has a potty mouth):
Delicious!!
We also conducted some totally slame interviews (super lame = SLAME):
After leaving Baton Rouge on Monday morning, we re-routed our trip to avoid Houston. We took I-40 instead of I-10, which took a few extra hours, but we were able to find gas pretty easily and didn't encounter any road closings. We finally made it to Albuquerque around 6am. To be continued...
What are some road trip hazards? Besides not always getting to sleep or shower as much as we’d like, there have been a few technical issues along the way. Due to an unfortunate soda-bottle-opening-in-the-purse-at-The-Met issue, Amanda’s phone is currently malfuctioning. There was also the shampoo-bottle-leaking-in-the-backpack episode that has left my laptop sticky and smelling very clean. So a word to the wise: keep your electronics away from liquids! Duh.
Do you guys ever get into fights? Only when Amanda loses at Shuffleboard.
What kind of music do you listen to while driving? Luckily, Amanda and I are perfect road trip partners because we have almost exactly the same taste in music and opposite taste in which parts of the Chex Mix we like (for the record, Amanda likes the Chex and I like the bagel chips). We listen to a LOT of The Format and The Honorary Title. Other favorites include Brand New, Jimmy Eat World, Something Corporate, Cassino, and Death Cab for Cutie. Also, we have been listening to all the mix Cds that people have given us and that we have made along the way. At the moment, our favorite songs are Citizen Cope’s cover of "Karma Police," Alkaline Trio’s single "Help Me," and Weezer’s new song "Troublemaker."
What has been your favorite part so far? We both really loved our stay at the Pedrazzi ranch, but there have been so many amazing moments. Look for some highlights when we do our road trip wrap-up posts later this week.
Wow, you guys are so awesome! I wish I could do a road trip like you! Yeah, too bad. It’s quite exhausting to be this Awesome, and not just anyone can achieve our level of Awesomeness. Maybe if you check out our Awesome photos, some of the Awesomeness will rub off on you. Okay, seriously, anyone can do any kind of road trip they want! It’s just a matter of planning it out and making it happen.
Amanda: OOhhhhhhhhhh Boston. Where past is present. Boston is one of my favorite cities, with it's old historical buildings and roads mixed effortlessly into the giant, shiny new buildings of today. But really, it's like they said "Lets keep the original city hall, a couple of court houses, and that cobblestone road over there, but lets add a couple of free-ways, starbucks stores and a statue of Paul Revere." It's pretty cool. Betsy: Ohhhh Boston. Where the roads have no apparent lane divisions and the intersections involve confusing diagonals. Boston is not one of my favorite cities, but I was excited to go because it meant seeing my brother and sister even though it's not Christmas. We had a Uhler sibling reunion which meant good times and of course, some drinking. Amanda: We did a little bit of sight-seeing, mostly window shopping and of course, some eating. Betsy: We went to a club called the Middle East and saw a band called What Made Milwaukee Famous. We made friends with their merch guys, and then they charged Amanda $5 for a free poster. Thanks a lot, guys! Great to meet you!
We did a lot of walking in Boston, but even more spotting of random things on the streets, including: giant slugs, a rabid squirrel, the remains of a stolen bike, and a pogo stick (yes, we pogo-ed).
Amanda: We had a day off while Betsy's sister Lauren worked and her brother Rod had class all day. So we decided that Salem would be an educational place to visit. Until it rained. Of course. What would our trip be without torrential downpours? Is anyone seeing a trend here? Salem is very much an outdoor city. Walking tours proved to be out of the equation due to the weather, so instead we grabbed a slice of pizza, sat down to watch a 27 minute long educational movie about early settlers in Essex County. The best part was the subtitles for the hearing impaired that did everything BUT match the actual dialog on the screen. At least we had a good laugh before we walked around a creepy old cemetery. Off to Maine. We drove to Portland (our second Portland ever) which only took about two hours. Portland is this adorable little fishing town with all kinds of shops and pubs and all the lobster you could dream of. Naturally, being the dare devils we are, we sat down to a cold, locally brewed, pumpkin beer and a big old plate of lobster. I've had lobster before, but not when I've had to pull the poor animal apart and Betsy's NEVER had it. There was alot of cringing going on over this poor lil guy. We ate him anyway. Betsy: Sorry, Bobster! On our way back from Boston, we decided to stop and see our friend Pelak. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I hate New Jersey because it is a gigantic pile of garbage. There are very few things that would get me to drive into New Jersey. Those things include: Warped Tour circa 2002-2004, New Years 2003, and Pelak.
And now we're off on a 24-hour drive to Florida to fight some hurricanes. Wish us luck!
Our New York City Adventures are chronicled below by our lovely host, Iris. Thanks, Iris! Our side notes are in bold.
So I really wanted to hear what Amanda and Betsy had to say about their trip to NYC, however, they asked me to “guest blog” about the trip. Judging by my awesome stories in the Met, sounds like they just wanted to hear more!
The trip started off with me making the girls come uptown by themselves rather than me go down and meet them, because if you know me, that’s how my lazy ass works. Not within ten minutes of them in my apartment, Betsy broke a picture in the bathroom and then I made her fish out the glass in the toilet. What a welcoming party!
We then walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was fun until it started to monsoon. It was great that the girls came fully prepared with no umbrellas and that my parents taught me how to share. (it's true. thanks iris!)
It took us a LOT longer to get to the museum since it was pretty much impossible to trudge through the puddles that were becoming lakes. Once inside, we dried off and enjoyed the many sights of the museum, including the guy who was busting out of his shirt because his muscles were too big for his size kids 10-12 shirt and the many tapestries that had zero descriptions of what they were, to which I provided my own color commentary. Iris taught us that many of the Egyptians couldn't read menus. They also had trouble buying birds since they were decidedly blind. And if you ever go to the Met, look for William, The Blue Hippo.
Afterwards, we went back to my apartment in an even worse rainstorm than earlier in the afternoon, which left all of us completely drenched. Mind you, I had utilized many coworkers’ opinions of where to go out and drink so that we had a really full itinerary of awesome NYC bars… which never happened because the girls had no more going out clothes since they were completely soaked. Hooray! But we made a night out of it, so nothing was lost! Instead, we feasted on all kinds of chinese food and didn't have a single sip of the mass amounts of alcohol that Iris tried to pawn off on us. But who needs to go out in NYC when its storming and you have all sorts of vegetable fried rice staring you in the face in a nice, dry, apartment?? Not me. Not I.
Every weekend in NYC there is a street festival that occurs on different avenues. To make up for a crazy Saturday, they obviously planned around us and held the street fest on 3rd Ave right outside my place! This vast awesomeness included free food (which we only discovered after we bought food… that wasn’t very good), free crap and free water bottles, which I seemed to accrue the most of. Once we walked the entire festival (20 blocks), we headed down to Chinatown where we were immediately harassed to buy everything ("You want Gucci handbag? Handbag handbag handbag??"). Super cool! We saw live baby turtles being sold on the street, anime bobbleheads and even water filled balls that were shaped like boobs. Then we got candy! FYI never try to sample something in a candy store in china town if it isn't clearly noted as a sample. They'll follow you around like you just tried to steal a part of the Great Wall.
Next, we traveled to the East Village where we found an awesome bar that had phenomenal taste in music, like The Cardigans and Interpol. Then they played BOTH of their records in the entirety because they’re really just that good. Both of them. Then we rushed back up town to get their stuff and down to the bus where Betsy and Amanda continued their nationwide travels.
Monday night, while in Boston, I received 3 text messages one right after another from Betsy and her two siblings about the concert they were at. One was pretty detailed, one was short and to the point, one was completely blank and Amanda doesn’t have my number. I was already missed!
It's true, Iris was instantly missed. She was, however, a fabulous host! And if Amanda HAD your number, she definitely would have texted you as well. Thanks again Iris!!
We've been up to alot lately, and we're falling a few days behind. Bear with us.
We're in Boston right now, staying with Betsy's sister Lauren. We have a whole day to waste away so we've decided we're going to go see Salem and then head up to Portland, Maine and eat some lobster. I heard it's cheap there, like ordering a domestic beer. Makes sense. MAINE lobster. Whatever.
Alot of interesting things have been happening, but we'll have to fill you in a little later when we have a minute to get all our pictures and things organized. I'm a little hungover and it's time to get ready for the day, but here's a taste of what's to come:
*strange exotic animals *exciting ethnic foods *immigrants *serious bootleg gucci hand bags *interesting modes of transportation
Our New York City Adventures are chronicled below by our lovely host, Iris. Thanks, Iris! Our side notes are in bold.
