Our Trip

Spokane, WA to Minnapolis, MN. We're also going to Yellowstone..a bit south.

Finding my inner road trip

In college, a road trip was a piece of cake.

It was so easy. It required a gas station credit card and someone with a car. Lucky for me, I had both. I was never as a loss for a road-trip partner. As an undergraduate, at a minutes notice, we would leave Flagstaff and head down to Sedona, Arizona. The drop in elevation, about 2500 feet, would generally raise the temperature about 20 degrees. Nice. Many an afternoon was spent at Oak Creek Canyon "studying" while we chit-chatted and drank beer in the heart of red rocks country. Of course, one of my most memorable events was driving to Southern California in search of an In-N-Out burger. Hey, the food in the cafeteria sucked that morning. So, "Barstow for Burgers" became etched in my mind. Brenda, of course, was there to cover duty for me that night at the dorm. We actually never made it to Barstow...but we did finally eat at McDonald's in Needles, CA.

In graduate school, new and even more exciting road trips took place. Let's see, Portland Maine (The Lucky To Be Alive) trip, Good Harbor Beach, Margate New Jersey, New Paltz, NY, New Haven, CT, and of course NYC. Always fun, always last minute. Always affordable.

Now, with so many weekends planned, the spontaneous road trip is harder to come by. I think that makes me relish it even more. The last excellent road trip I took was to York, Pennsylvania the week in between jobs. It was sunny and cold and perfect driving weather both directions. Of course, we stopped at Tom and Arlene's Diner in Port Jervis, NY for the famous "Meaney Burger". I highly recommend Tom and Arlene's diner--although I've never actually met Tom or Arlene.

This trip, while not spontaneous, should prove to have many spontaneous moments along the way. Only 9 hours until my flight leaves. My bag is packed, the iPod is fully loaded. Let's go!

Four Days and Counting

In about four days, I'll have arrived in Spokane, Washington. Spokane is really nothing to get excited about...in fact, I have trouble getting excited about western Washington state. I am, however, excited to get this party started! I've been collecting fun and interesting things that we can see and do along the way and I know that Brenda is doing the same. Nick sent me information about the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota...that looks like something we can't miss. Another person mentioned Wall Drug. In fact, several people have chimed in on the whole Wall Drug phenomenon. So, clearly, that is a "can't be missed". A few years ago, my friend Jenn T. got me my very own Wall Drug plate. I have to see where it came from.

My friend Jenn J. let us know that we can actually pick up an audio guide when we drive into South Dakota. Who knew? I'm sure that will be a must have for any S. Dakota traveler. Plus, if we get bored, we can just fast forward the tape and, perhaps, that will fast forward S. Dakota. Jenn also mentioned that Brenda and I had an official song when we were at NU..."Growing older but not up" by Jimmy Buffett. How could I have forgotten that one??? We were also really into 30 Something (they seemed so mature).

My friend Stephen from NU called last night and that, of course, sent me down memory lane. We made a video our first week in Boston to send home to our parents. It featured thrilling sights and sounds of Boston. We featured our apartments to the song "It's my house" by Diana Ross and some great footage of the Green Line to "Peace Train" by 10,000 Maniacs. I think we had some James Taylor thrown in there for good measure. Whatever the music, it really was the videotape that was a lot of fun to make. We went onto the roof of one of the residence halls to get a good city view...(look, ye yonder) we didn't know that people got expelled from the University for doing that...It also reminded me that Stephen really was my first friend at Northeastern and I'm glad we're still friends to this day.

Caroline Bender saves the day! I'm now "Jay" and anyone should be able to comment on our blog! Thanks for the tips!

Now its my turn to tell stories...

Okay,

I can see that as usual, I will have to jump in and defend myself before Jay begins telling all of my wild college escapades....

I decided to embark upon this road trip after spending three long and sometimes dark years in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. For those of you who know me well, you know I am always getting into something and I always have some wild, crazy stories to tell. My life for the past three years has been boring and I need a few stories to add to the repetoire and who better to collect the stories with, than my best friend. I feel like I must provide an introduction to how I got to where I am, and how I am getting to where I am going.

I am currently living in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. I moved here with my ex-boyfriend Brad, although we were not ex at the time. While in Idaho I have done some great things, particularly the Ironman Triathlon twice. Coeur d' Alene gave me the courage to do this race and also the courage to start my own business. Well, on my way back from a Christmas trip to Bali, Indonesia I had the epiphany that it was time to leave my job and begin my own company. Shortly after this decision, I realized it was time to leave Coeur d' Alene. I registered for my third Ironman Triathlon, this time in Lake Placid New York. My race is July 23, 2006! I also decided since I would be self-employed that I would take a LONGGGGG road trip and drive to my race. Jay jumped at the chance to drive part-way across the country with me. After I drop Jay off I will continue to Lake Placid and then spend two more months travelling the east coast. My plan is to visit Boston, Maine, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and head back to Idaho in October. I have rented my house and am 95% certain I will leave Coeur d' Alene permanently. Part of the purpose of my trip to explore moving back east again. When I first decided to leave I was making the decision to leave because I was running from something, but know I feel the momentum pulling me toward something and it is exciting!

I am looking forward to some fun stories and adventures with Jay. I will still be in training so there will be a day or two where he drops me off in a corn field with my bike and picks me up 100 miles later. I am sure he will have some stories to tell! Oh, and one more thing...I cannot leave out that we are taking Hank, my 9 month old Bernese Mountain Dog puppy with us. Hank is 9 months, 85 lbs and full of peronality....

NU Here we come!

Before we get started with this chapter, dear reader, we need to let you know that "A boy, a girl, a dog, and an Element" is Jay. For some reason, I can't figure out why I can't make that say "Jay" but I can't so I'm not going to worry about it anymore. I spent a chunk of my Sunday morning trying to figure that one out but to no avail.

This morning I got started on my next iPod playlist, NU Mix. That one turned out to be a bit tougher than NAU Mix since the period of time was shorter and since I was broke most of the time, CD buying decreased. I had to really focus in order to remember what was hot at the Boatslip in P-Town in 1990. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's talk about how I got to Boston and how I convinced (it wasn't hard) Brenda that she needed to be here with me. I graduated NAU in 1988. I spent a year on the beach in San Diego- trying to find a job in HR is a down economy in a small city. A recipe for diaster. I did have fun living in Ocean Beach with my best friend Scott (that is another story for another blog). Brenda, at this point, was finishing up her last year of drinking, um, I mean studying, at NAU. Since I couldn't find real employment, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what was next. As I moved from temp job to retail job and back to temp job, I decided "screw this, school was more fun" and I did what most underemployed people do--went to graduate school. Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts chose me in a way and I've considered this, next to getting married, the single most important decision in my life. I only applied to NU and only found out at the last minute that I was accepted to the program. All of my mail had gone to my mother's house in Scottsdale. She called one day and said "honey, I think you got in". So it was off to Boston. I got a full ride assistantship with the housing department--run a dorm for 20 hours a week and we'll give you an education and an apartment in Boston. I packed my bag and was there August 15th, 1989.

So, 1989-90 was my first year of graduate school and Brenda's first year of underemployment post graduation. This was the year we spent on the phone. She had plenty of time to chat at work and I had plenty of free time. The most memorable conversation "honey, can you hold on--the 800 line is ringing"...From there, the 800 number was out and the rest was history! As first quarter came to an end, Brenda decided to join me at Northeastern and we got her hooked up with her own dorm and apartment and we had the funnest year ever. I spent a small fortune on going out and going out we did--6 nights a week. I'm not sure how I had money to go out that much but for some reason, I did. Thank god classes met in the late afternoon and the dorm job didn't require a lot of effort.

I think the entire housing department was a bit taken aback at our antics. Brenda would frequently show up with some sort of injury from a party (once it was rug burn but that will be another posting and I might let Brenda tell that story). I think the "adults" were a bit bummed that they were not having the amount of fun that we were. We had a "posse" of other grad students in the housing department...Alan, Stephen, Jenn A., Jenn J to name a few and they were always up for a beer or three at almost any time. To this day, I miss those guys and wish we were all together. They were always amused at my hair color (Jenn J and I went "dark" since we became full time hall directors) and Brenda just went short, short, short. I really wanted her to shave her head like Sinead O'Connor but she wouldn't do it.

So, reader, that leaves Jay and Brenda safe and sound and influencing young college students in Boston.

Getting ready for a road trip!

It's exactly one week until I leave for my Summer 2006 road trip from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to Minneapolis, MN. I can't wait! It all started when my best friend Brenda told me she was driving from Idaho to New York. Since I've been to every state except for N. and S. Dakota and Alaska, I decided that this was my chance to knock them off my list (really, when am I every going to need to travel to N. or S. Dakota on business? The last time I checked, they are not technology or advertising hot beds...but I digress). My husband Nick (we're married in Massachusetts) had absolutly no interest in going---so I quickly booked my tickets!

I spent this morning working on my NAU (Northern Arizona University) iPod Mix. Since Brenda and I met there in 1986, it seems like a "must have". Some of the songs include: Life in a Northern Town, Rio, Wild Boys, and some classic Jimmy Buffet: One Particular Harbor, Mexico (oh, we have Mexico stories!), and Boat Drinks. It should prove to be a trip down memory lane.

So, let me share how I met Brenda. I was working at the front desk of SAC hall when this woman with a crew cut, a blazer, and a briefcase checked in. I was immediately smitten with her and decided immediately that we needed to be friends. Little did I know that we would become and be friends to this day. Since I wanted to get to know her, I immediately invited her out for drinks at the Henry's Latin Quarter (fondly called the "LQ"--it is now long gone). Since she wasn't "of age" (19 at the time), we got her fake ID out and Rosie, Brooks, and I went out for drinks. The actually bought her ID which cracks me up. In any event, that night was the beginning of a fabulous friendship. That night I learned that she was a republican, a new waver, a journalism major, and destined for DC. Together we would become RAs (more on that later), drunken fools, we made out once, and true confidants. We would meet each other's parents, friends, lovers, "mr Right Now's", and partners.

That gets us started. Stay tuned for more. How Brenda and I end up in Boston, Connecticut, Hawaii, California, & Idaho--just to name a few of our adventures.