The Sun Also Rises...

After a night spent driving south along the eastern seaboard, riding America's longest roller coaster, and opening Delawarean beer on the hotel towel rack, we found ourselves on the Nags Head beach at 6:30 AM. Just minutes before the iPhones' predicted sunrise. Would it finally happen? It seemed unlikely. After years of trying we'd never managed to do it before. Plus, the sky didn't look very sun-like. By 6:22, precisely 1 minute before the scheduled rise, we had seriously decided that today was the day—the day that the sun actually wouldn't come up. It had been a long night.

At 6:23 AM the sun rose over the eastern horizon, like you could set your clock by that thing. Or maybe devise an entire calendar system around it. To celebrate, we danced. And then jumped into the Atlantic.

Here, There, and Other Places

This is the story of me taking the bus to Minneapolis, driving to Osseo and then Baraboo, flying to Philadelphia, interviewing for a job, driving to Chicago, driving to Milwaukee, driving to Madison, driving to Philadelphia, flying to Milwaukee, driving to Chicago, going to a wedding, driving to Milwaukee, flying to Philadelphia, taking a bus to New York, getting on a winnebago to Atlantic City, taking the train to Philadelphia, flying to Madison, throwing a party (topped with another party), doing a Sway, loading a truck with all my belongings, having my flight cancelled, driving to Milwaukee, flying to Philadelphia, and then taking the train home. Below, an incomplete pictorial:

Except for the fact that there was a snow storm winding down, the trip started well. I had snacks and coffees, and various other beverages.

Snacks/dranks.

Not to mention maps. Mostly of Maryland, but with a couple pieces of a some more useful ones mixed in too. Like this ⅔ of a Pennsylvania Official Transport Map I found in the door.

Maps/snaps.

By the time I passed Jersey Shore the snow was done. But so was the coffee. And the snacks.

Central Pennsylvania.

And then they shut down I-80. If there's one thing I'm not interested in, it's a truck-jam. Thank god I had that piece of a map handy.

A long line of TRUUCKS.

Chicago offered the Skoczenator, submarine warfare, and a chance to catch up on some of my kreepier correspondences. And then onto WI!

Notes.

I don't really remember anything else until I was at this train station last week, going to the airport directly from work for the second time in a month. This time I was carrying my Bag O'Bags. FYI: it turns out that 8 bags stuffed inside of one really big bag ends up weighing 61 lbs. It was worth the check-in lady telling me I was going to have to spend the night in Cincinnati to avoid the overweight fees she let me slip out of. 

Checked bag.

Enclosed bags.

It was nice to have all of 'em when we stripped my apartment down though. And just in time for Katie's surprise birthday party, followed a ½ hour later by my surprise going away party. Somehow these are the only two pictures from either event in which we don't look grossly unattractive.

Party #1: Happy Birthday Katie

Party #2: Goodbye Whitney

The measurin' wall, after its last measure:

Apartment heights: 5'2"-6'3"

What was left? Just to pack up this comically over-sized truck and send my dad on his way. Three days later he finally made it back to Philadelphia and my things went from filling a ⅓ of the truck to filling a ⅓ of the living room.

The truck of another size.

There's still room for that car I don't own.

Frog legs with a side of pickle.

Jugglers

Katie claims she's been resolving to learn how to juggle every new year since she was 16. She's finally achieved that goal! To celebrate we juggled our way across the country, and set a new goal. Next up: The Double Juggle.

poll by twiigs.com

Here I Am.

As usual, the weekend in Milwaukee just wasn't enough for me. I stayed Monday, and we won Trivia at The Nomad. I stayed Tuesday and Katie got new ball bearings on her car. Obviously you have to road test new ball bearings. So we drove to Denver (The Sunshine State!). And we brought Kermit!

Along the way, Joanna fed us margaritas and Were-movies in Iowa City. Then we headed west. Do you know how much more boring Nebraska is that Iowa‽ A lot much more boring. Luckily for us there was a wreck on I-80 halfway through NE. Traffic came to an abrupt stop; people immediately exited their vehicles. So we did too. We had made a stop at Art Smarts Dart Mart and Juggling Emporium on Monday afternoon and that was finally paying off for us. We did some juggling in the median, took a couple of jump shots, and brought Kermit out to air out his frog parts for a bit.

I'm not sure which of our antics attracted the attention of the trucker in front of us, but he came over to take a picture. Then he let the frog drive his truck for a little bit. It probably wasn't very safe, but then he did have a laptop attached to his steering wheel. And that can't be very safe either. We told him Kermit would never forget this day and he promised that he wouldn't either.



Turns out he's currently driving across the country with his daughter, and a dachshund. We thought that was the bee's knees. Until we turned around and he had these two baby wieners in his hands. It's hard to imagine something better that could have come out of that truck cab at that moment. Lesson: if you're going to be stuck on a highway in Nebraska make sure you bring your juggling paraphernalia and stop behind a tractor trailer with a litter of wieners hidden inside.

All this dog activity turned out to be really appropriate. In Denver we stayed with Shannon, a Schmaling cousin. She's involved with 2 airedales, and lives in the doggiest neighborhood I've ever been to. We felt a little uncomfortable because we didn't have anything to put on a leash. Our main objective while visiting the Colorado state capital though was juggling in front of large things. As far as large things go, you can't beat this giant chair, topped with a normal sized horse.

Don't worry, this trip is far from over. Just don't expect to see any rafting photos; we just slept through the pre-planned and pre-paid rafting excursion!