I'm calling it Epic because Jon always says it when we're asked where we're going. I'm calling the first part Journey Beads, because it was my favorite store in Athens when I was in school, and our trip is in the threading stages so it fits.
June 23rd...
We finally rolled out of the driveway toward Leesburg, Va, bound for the
Freestyle Connection BMX Stunt Team show (in case you don't know, it's Jon's awesome BMX stunt team) performing at the Leesburg Fair. Jon camperized his Dodge Van so we could sleep in it for our lengthy trip, making a nice cushy futon and shelving for our condiments. For our entertainment, canoe on top via a painter's rack, and 4 bikes on a borrowed Ben's Bikes rack so we're ready for adventures!
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| this is from a later photo... but here's the inside, on the right is shelving for our condiments, and the futon pulls out for comfy sleeping : ) |
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| First stop, Kyle's house where we had a tour of goldendoodle land, and then a howling serenade led by a 15 yr old tiny Pomeranian, but apparently we didn't even hear the best of it |
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| Boger City Pawn, Lincolnton, North Carolina |
1st stop, North Carolina camping at Lake Norman State Park...
Nice little camp spot for first night of sleeping in the van! The very sweet camping host checked us in and we walked down a path at dusk for sunset. That night we cooked up sausages with some grilled vegetables from our garden, made a fire, drank some wine and fell asleep. The next morning we finished the sausage with some blueberry pancakes and maple syrup mmmm mmmm!
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| Watching our child swim |
After breakfast and cowboy coffee we took a little canoe trip along the banks of the lake, checked out some things and headed off toward the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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| Sweet man and his dog at one of the lookouts |
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| Rainy section through the window, looked cool |
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| Jon wishing he was a bird |
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| A pee with a view |
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| Rudee feeling the wind |
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| Pretty sun rays |
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| Me, Rudee and the Van at the Blue Ridge Parkway |
Leesburg, Va...
Is an adorable town and the
Freestyle Connection had another flawless performance as a crowd pleaser like always! My friend Rebecca met us from D.C. and we had an awesome time finding things to get into.
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| Jared almost loses his bike in the air but thankfully catches it |
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| Awesome little yogurt place in Leesburg, a cute little girl took this pic for us |
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| Rudee stealing water from a topiary |
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| Rudee with her twin, Yoda |
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| Batman hides out in an antique store in Leesburg, Va |
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| street scene in Leesburg, Va |
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| Jared the pick up artist / BMX performer |
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| Adorable little girl on a fair ride, like a Shirley Temple : ) |
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| Kyle and Rebecca, sillies! |
Philadelphia, PA
We met up and stayed with Jon's Flatland bud Brett Downs for a couple of nights and took a couple of excursions via the transit train while there. I heard about a free movie night at Penn's Landing, so Brett guided us in the right direction there. We started heading out down Market Street ( ?) until the sky became so black we had to duck into a bar to avoid the wind, crazy lightning and rain.
As movie night became a few beers we enjoyed watching people duck in and out of the rain before we headed to the very last train going back home. Then, we got on the wrong train and were warned and scorned by the conductor that we were idiots and our only option was to get off at the shadiest spot in Philly and convince a cab to take us home. Well, fortunately a man (kinda looking like a rounded version of Jaws from James Bond) hailed a cab for us and instructed him to take us to the hospital to find another cab. He said none of the cab drivers are willing to pick up just anyone b/c it's a heavy crime and drug area. Thankfully he took us, shady as we looked : ) to the hospital and we waited for another cab to take us to Brett's side of town. In the meantime, a very wasted driver crashed into the entrance beside the hospital right where we had been standing just 5 minutes before (I don't know why I didn't take a pic). Then, a woman pulled up in an unmarked cab and we finally realized she was waiting on us. She spoke very little English and had no idea what we were saying. Both of our phones were dead and we needed to explain the directions to Brett's house and all I could remember was the Hollywood Tavern, so she let us borrow her phone to google that address. After a lengthy process the hospital receptionist came out to assist and we made it to Brett's by about 1am.
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| Brett's adorably sweet daughter, Kelly |
The next day was easy and pleasant as we rode bikes with Brett and Jack
at Pennypack park, then took the train
into New York for the day and put Rudee in one of Brett's messenger
bags. Our first stop was a delicious Thai / Mexican Margarita Bar on
7th Ave. We made it for happy hour and had a couple of beers and
delicious Thai food on special, oh it was soooo good! We walked around
with Rudee forever, people watching and just walking the streets. At
the end of the night, we checked out a couple of bars Matt Potter told
us about (Earl's Beer and Cheese, and The Guthrie Inn) and then headed
back to Brett's.
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| Rudee is ready for New York! |
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| My plate, but I don't remember what it was called |
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| an older lady, Bassett, Pit mix |
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| Pomeranian and gym shorts and socks |
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| Rudee makes a friend near the Twin Towers memorial |
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| We thought this was funny |
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| Security in a pool of blue |
We had trouble getting Rudee back on the train b/c we didn't have the
proper carrier... but after escaping that particular guy, Jon had a good
idea to split up and confuse him. We traded her off and got on a little
further down so Jon could put her under his seat and we had no problem
after that.
On the way out, we checked out the Beth Sholom Synagogue, another Frank Lloyd Wright design which pretty much down the road from Brett's house, and headed out.
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| Not the prettiest design... |
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| The fountain in front was nice though |
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| We added a little decoration, she makes anything look cute |
Tony's house, Reinholdt, PA
We blew through a couple of tolls after leaving Brett's and headed to finally let Jon ride some flatland with his peeps. We met up at a school parking lot and the guys rode a couple of hours until the bottom fell out of the sky and left us with a rainbow. After that we went to a local bar called
Reinholds Tavern with Tony and his wife Jody, and then headed to Tony's house to camp out in his driveway for a couple of days.
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| A rainbow at the school where the guys ride flatland |
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| Reinholds Tavern, serving food and spirits since 1863 |
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| locals provide entertainment at Reinholds |
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| She tries to teach Jon the butt clap |
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| The people at Reinholds that night |
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| Reinholds that, night under the moon |
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| Horses at a barn down the road from Tony's house |
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| Jon and Jody relaxing in the pool, Tony - clean that dirt out! |
Confluence, PA and Fallingwater!
We found a camp spot in a town called Confluence, right on the Alleghany Trail along the Youghiogeny River, made a fire and delicious pasta accompanied with marinated green tomatoes from our garden and bruschetta. It was the best meal yet!! We went first to the
Fallingwater home in Mill Run, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I had studied about it in art history way back with Dr. Polk and loved seeing the photos of it. On a road trip with my folks 15 yrs or so ago, we tried to visit it but didn't do our research before to discover it's closed on Wednesdays... so I've been determined to make it again for a tour since then. The hour tour was well worth the $20.
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| Our bruschetta |
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| Dozer, some fellow campers' rescued dog, found at his son's workplace by a bulldozer a few years back |
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| Jon at Fallingwater |
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| oh beautiful Fallingwater! |
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| Attractive couple at Fallingwater view |
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| Going and coming on the tracks in Ohiopyle, Pa |
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| Taking pix of my muse |
When we came back, a heavy mist was hovering above the Youghiogheny and across the banks along the river and it was beautiful! People were trickled around fly fishing in the water and melting into the mist. While trying to capture the right photo of the mist, I ran down each path leading up to the water from the campground and on the way back, found some unusual rocks I thought may be meteorites...
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| From the car window |
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| Fly fishing on the Youghiogheny |
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| Youghiogheny from the restaurant |
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| Rudee makes a friend at the Lucky Dog café |
The next day we rode our bikes just 10 miles to Ohiopyle along the Alleghany bike path, had a couple of delicious beers and headed back to camp for more pasta before leaving for Anderson, Indiana.
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| Our bikes and a cute dog |
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| Rudee in the sun |
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| Rudee and I near a pretty spot |
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| Another dog in a milk crate on the trail |
Indianapolis and Anderson, Indiana at Coop's place...
We got to Coop's at 1am and he was just getting off work and starting to ride some flatland in his garage and we were exhausted from traveling late. We stayed up until about 3am and then pooped out in the little guest bedroom. The next day we rode bikes down the Monon trail to find some breakfast, then I met up with the wonderful Monko's I know from Athens while Jon rode some flatland. That night we waited on Scott and Melissa Nagy to arrive before heading with Sara (Coop's awesome girl) to have dinner at St. Elmos - a famous restaurant in Indianapolis where Coop's works. To our surprise, we sit down in this 1900's era building - buzzing with diners eating, drinking and talking, and Coop's spoils us with dishes of potatoes, unforgettable shrimp cocktail, choice cuts of hunks of meat, mushrooms, desserts, bottles of wine, and after dinner drinks oh my!!! Coops completely and unexpectedly spoiled us all so that we owe him dozens more Twilight good times to hopefully try to come close to returning such a sweet favor...
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| Scott, Melissa, me, Sarah, Coops, and Jon after hogging out in style!! |
We had too much fun the whole weekend, which was awesome. Saturday was the Anarchy in Anderson Flatland contest, which was an all day thing... but finally at 8:00 or so when the pro comp started Coops and Jon did awesome!! Jon was talked into riding pro but did fantastic, and Coops got away with 2nd place!! So we took the winners away with us and had some more fun that night at a place called the Slippery Noodle downtown. We listened to an awesome blues band, then listened the rest of the night to the awesome and hilarious house band, who took requests - yeah everybody's!!!
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| This poor dog was left at the skatepark the day of the flatland jam... didn't see him the next day, hope he found someone to love him! |
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| Cooking it up in the kitchen, we felt like such adults! Except for the guy in the wig... |
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| Sarah... the culinary queen cooking up some delicious soul food! |
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| Dinner by bikes |
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| setting up the table |
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| Andy getting some lovin' from the cat |
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| 11 year old flatlander, she's awesome!! |
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| Scott posing, such a poser! |
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| Oh Melissa! That bean dip oh yeah!! |
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| See if you can find Rudee |
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| Andy Incognito |
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| Clouds creeping in on the contest |
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| some kids hanging out when the contest moved inside |
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| The Millers provide watermelon to the hungry and parched crowd! |
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| the crew inside watching the contest |
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| Sarah, proud of her winner!! |
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| we showed our sunburned faces at the afterparty location, but we were the only ones there right after the contest |
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| cool artwork downtown Indianapolis, during our bike ride / tour by Coops |
We overstayed our welcome until Monday morning, not passing up one last delicious meal prepared by Coops and Sarah...
and headed to meet Jon's dad at the truck stop in Gary, Indiana. I LOVE those buffets!
Madison, Wisconsin...
We headed to Madison, thinking Tim Knoll and Micah Kranz lived there... and also to check the status of my hopeful meteorite finds...
So, after a couple of phone calls we realized both guys live in Milwaukee, not Madison. So we went to a local bar called Mickey's, per suggestion from a local tattooed bike shop girl and then camped in the van on a random perfect street. We had a delicious continental breakfast, thanks to Comfort Inn & Suites... then rode bikes on the bike path through town to the Geological Museum to check out the rocks. After 2 seconds of looking at the rocks the girl hardly gave them the time of day and proclaimed them vesicular basalt rocks, but I still think they have potential... then we made it most of the way through the museum until they kicked us out because of Rudee.
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| Rudee turns into her alter ego "Julio" at the geology museum |
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| Inside Mickey's |
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| A girl playing the jukebox at Mickey's |
From Madison, Wisconsin...
We headed down beautiful highway 35, excited about eventually riding along the Mississippi River, and stopped at one of the many fruit stands along the very scenic and farm filled, open country road. We purchased tomatoes, raw honey (but of course), onions, peppers, and dilly beans (pickled beans). They suggested we check out a beautiful state park along the route, called Wyalusing.
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| the son and father at the fruit stand |
Wyalusing State Park overlooks the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, and is absolutely beautiful!! We stayed only about an hour because we were trying to make up some time, though this park has sooooo much more to explore! Hindsight, we should have lingered a little longer because we only made it about an hour further...
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| a hole in the rock on one of the hikes |
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| stairs leading up to a shallow cave |
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| a view |
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| us at the main overlook at the confluence |
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| riding along the Mississippi river |
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| pretty sunset along the Mississippi |
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| one of the bridges over the Mississippi |
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| These birds flew back and forth a million times over the bridge |
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| We saw the most enormous lilly pads along the Mississippi!! I didn't have my zoom lens on though |
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As soon as we crossed over the Mississippi River, into Iowa... we were on a high just from the awesome scenery, and BOOM... we hit a deer!! Neither Jon or I can even squash an ant!! We clocked it, and he died on impact, thank goodness... so Jon had to drag it from the road while I panicked by the van and acted like an idiot until I regained my composure. We didn't have much damage to the van, just felt really horrible about it. This instance kind of led up to a little bad luck...
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| The poor deer took a poop on impact |
We found the nearest campsite just after hitting the deer and sadly, we set up on a site right across from the river.
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| Here we are, cooking |
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| Jon chef'd up some franks and veggies and we weren't even in the mood to drink beers, just had a cup of frizzy wine and looked at the reflection on the water from the moon that night |
We woke up and headed on toward South Dakota, along Hwy 90, before stalling out near Blue Earth, Minnesota and had to call a tow truck back to Albert Lea, where Jon found a Dodge dealership.
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| Bummer! |
We tried to head out again several times, but the van wouldn't let us. Turns out we needed the worst case scenario... an ECM (basically, the computer for the van). Even worse, this part had to be ordered from the manufacturer in Detroit so we'd have to wait until Tuesday for the part to be delivered.
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| We took advantage of the discount for the hotel next door, America's best value Inn. I really loved the painting in our room, pretty unique for hotel art! |
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More on Minnesota camping in the next blog entry... for we are to be camping here for 6 days!
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