Wausau, Wisconsin

I'm trying to stay positive about Wausau, Wisconsin but it isn't coming easy. Its a bit of a roll of the dice on what my destinations are going to be like. Really what has brought me here is that I spent the last two days in Mackinaw City, Michigan (loved it) and will spend three days in Minneapolis, Minnesota (planning on loving it) and this happened to be the midpoint mark. As I looked at Priceline for hotels in the area I was amazed to see how low the rates were here. But now I understand. My Days Inn has a McDonald's in its front yard. If I were five years old, I would be so psyched about this but, as an adult, Happy Meals and indoor playgrounds just don't have the appeal that they once did. On the bright side, the BP gas station that shares the parking lot with the hotel will be a convenient stop on my way out tomorrow morning and, if I find I need a loofah or a hunk of steak, I can just walk across the highway to the Bed, Bath & Beyond that shares a building with Texas Steakhouse.

Oh, and to the state of Michigan: I am so sorry that I made pre-judgements of you and dismissed you as an industrial state with poor economy that wouldn't be worth my road trip. You are beautiful and I am so glad that I took a chance and added you to my route. I loved the entire drive from Chicago to Mackinaw City. I've sold Lake Michigan short by thinking only oceans could be beautiful. I'll never underestimate a lake again.

Mackinaw City was a truly nice town -- good size, good people, good fudge. I even did the ferry ride to Mackinac Island (the only way to get to the island is by boat or plane being that cars are not allowed there; only horses and bikes.) I didn't stay there long, though, because it is not the kind of place for a girl on a budget. There's nothing like an inaccessible island to jack up prices.

Today I drove over the Mackinac Bridge. It is the largest bridge in the western hemisphere (26,400 ft) and the 3rd largest in the world. It didn't really feel so special but now I can say that I did it and thats the important part. I, then, got to drive through the Upper Peninsula along Lake Michigan and it was a pretty fantastic drive. And the national forest of Wisconsin was beautiful. And then there was Wausau. I'm looking forward to leaving tomorrow.

And a little bench humor:

I think they are trying to hide the fact that they put a bench backwards by putting a large trash bin in front of it. Didn't fool me, though.

Lost Art

Have you ever been to the Art Institute of Chicago? Its now the home of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Grant Woods' American Gothic, Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, and Van Gogh's Self-Portrait. I was pretty excited to go myself but instead of describing the genius and beauty of art, I'd like to bitch about how the layout of that museum is a rat maze. My attention span in any kind of museum is like a ticking time bomb. When one hour is up, I immediately become unable to observe, absorb or enjoy any knowledge or beauty. So I always need to prioritize and for today, the priority was to see the above four paintings. I did literal circles around Early European Art, and came this close to missing the closet of a hallway that lead to the Impressionists. Then, I had to ask directions to try to find the other two. The directions included going down a flight of stairs, making my way through two galleries, going through a gift shop and then back up a flight of stairs.

I ran into my mom after receiving my convoluted directions to the American Modern Art gallery and she was as flummoxed as I was. She told me she got to have a glimpse of what life must be like for me -- not knowing where one is, how one got there, or how to get where one wants to go. When I finally got to see Nighthawks, I was done. The whole set up reminded me of a grocery store that puts the milk in the back of the store so that you have to pass all types of tempting wares just to get to it. But that kind of makes sense because they want to make more money. But, as my mom put it, they already got their pound of flesh in the form of $18 whether you see one painting or one hundred. I think they do it for sadistic kicks. If you ever end up there, I suggest taking bread crumbs, demanding the first person you see that works there to personally escort you to where you need to go and then follow your bread crumbs back.

On a lighter note, we also did the required tourist activities: a boat tour (while we wore matching boat-line sponsored baseball caps; it was classic) and went to the top of the Willis (used to be Sears) Tower. Pictures:

Today is my last day in Chicago. The upper peninsula of Michigan is calling my name. My mom will fly back to Pittsburgh and I'll hit the road. I'm trying to talk her into joining me again when I get to Seattle.

Oh, and if you have any recommendations for books that are set in the west or the Pacific Northwest, please leave a comment.

What I've listened to in the last couple of days:

"Takk..." by Sigur Ros (thought of you, Los)

"The Very Best of Nina Simone; Volumes 1 and 2" by Nina Simone

"Uh Huh Her" by PJ Harvey

"Un Dia" by Juana Molina

"Tanglewood Numbers" by Silver Jews

Audio book: Discs 6 - 9 of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Podcast: "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" (08-07-2010)

Podcast: NPR Fresh Air (08-23-2010)

Podcast: This American Life (Rest Stop)

Where Am I?

I have absolutely no sense of direction. Its not just some random name for a blog. Its the absolute truth. You could walk me one city block, turn me around two times and I would have no idea how to get back to where I was. More than once, I've gotten off the elevator of a hotel, walked into my hotel room just to quickly drop something off, turned around to get back to the elevator and have gotten lost.

I was traveling with my friend, Lisa, and telling her about my trip. A moment later, I told her I have absolutely no sense of direction and she said "You might want to work on that." It would be a good idea for me to work on that being that the whole long road trip thing with maps and cities and needing to find your car and needing to find the hotel where you are sleeping for the night -- a sense of direction really helps with those things. My poor father. As if he isn't worried enough about me driving around by myself, now he knows that I'm going around as if I have a paper bag on my head and hoping that by luck I find my destination.

Speaking of my father (and of my mother), they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last Sunday. I actually dropped into Pittsburgh for two days to attend their anniversary party and to celebrate my birthday (the 25th.) I'd describe the anniversary party but the conversation turned out to be more scandalous then I can write about here. Thats just how my parents and their friends roll. At one point my mom said "You aren't going to put this in your blog, are you?" And the truth is, I'm not refraining from writing about here for the sake of my parents' reputation but more because I'm trying to forget what all I heard. But here is a picture of the hipsters forty years ago:

I am in Chicago now. My mom has come with me to see the sights for the next three days. We drove here, leaving Pittsburgh at 6 this morning. It happened to be the most agonizing 8 hours of my road tripping thus far. My mom is actually a fantastic driver; I just need to work on my ability to be a passenger. The plan was that she would drive, giving me a break from being behind the wheel and I would catch up on some much needed sleep across the state of Ohio. But I had forgotten that I can't sleep in cars or planes or anywhere that isn't a mattress with sheets and a pillow. So I was tired but unable to sleep and therefore cranky. And the Ohio landscape leaves a lot to be desired. I call Ohio the "Initiation State." If you are leaving Pittsburgh for a long road trip, you first need to survive the four hours through Ohio. If you make it through that without turning around, then you'll be able to make the rest of your trip.

OK, so I'm going to go out in the big city and wander aimlessly. My mom told me if I get lost, to call her and tell her what streets I'm on and she'll find me. She'll find me on the sidewalk, rocking back and forth, crying. Its going to be a fantastic trip.

Random pic of me and my fam:

Unlock my body and move myself to dance

Vermont is It. It is gorgeous and green (other than in the picture above) and a roadtripper's dream. I had one of the best drives of my life yesterday, starting at Bar Harbor, going straight through Maine, across the top of New Hampshire and wound my way through Vermont to Burlington. It was foggy and rainy but made the drive all the better. I would love to post a picture of the mountains with the fog and all but I started getting so wrapped up in how to get the perfect picture that I stopped enjoying my drive. I then decided to forget about the whole picture thing and just be in the moment.

The one pic I did manage to get of myself and Lake Champlain:

I'm doing an inventory of all of the music on my iPod. I've made a slightly random/slightly systematic way of going through all of the albums that I've ever uploaded. I have music on there from when I was in middle school (lots of Violent Femmes, The Smiths and Beastie Boys) to high school (Leonard Cohen and The Cure) to college (Nina Simone, Bright Eyes and Radiohead) to post-college (Belle and Sebastian, Quasi and Elliott Smith) to adult professionalism (Bessie Smith, John Hartford and Josh Ritter.) There is nothing like music to make me relive my life.

Today's reliving moments: "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" taking me back to New Years Eve trip to New York City (title of this post is a line from one of Wilco's songs that I noticed for the first time yesterday); and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" reminding me of reading "Go Ask Alice" for the fifth time in early high school.

What I listened to yesterday:

"Pablo Honey" by Radiohead

"Zee Avi" by Zee Avi

"The Queen is Dead" by The Smiths

"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by Wilco

"R&B Transmogrification" by Quasi

"XO" by Elliott Smith

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles

"Waltz in Stockholm (June, 1998)" by Elliott Smith

Audiobook: Discs 4 and 5 of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Maine N'at

The above pic is of the bench I found in Portland, Maine (with me sitting on it.) I've been lax on posting for the last three days, but I've been moving at a fairly frantic pace. I'll be going through Pittsburgh to celebrate my parent's 40th anniversary on the 24th and have been getting as much of New England as possible into less than a week and a half. So from Newport, it was one day in Providence, a half day in Portland and now a day and a half in Bar Harbor, Maine. Again, it is so crowded here. Who knew people would want to be at the beach in the summertime?

Just to mention a couple of things, and they're going to be in a bulleted list because I just happen to think better in bulleted lists:

• Reading: I just finished reading "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby, which was a great read. But I'm on to John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charlie" and I'm in love. Where has John Steinbeck been all of my life? Why didn't one of my English teachers force me to read one of his books? Every sentence I read, I wish I had written it. Just an incredibly clever dude. I got to one point in the book where he admits that he is visiting some places so that, when someone asks if he's been somewhere (like Niagara Falls), he can say yes "and be telling the truth for once." I get that. Already there are some places I have gone to just because I don't want to hear disappointment when I'm asked if I have been there and I say no and someone says "You went all that way and you didn't see ?" I wonder if that is what motivates all tourists. Like we really don't want to see anything, we just want to be able to say that we saw it. I'll let you contemplate that for a moment.
  


Lobster: I've been thinking about my dad's friend, Ben, on this trip. Ben loves food. I mean, he loves food. Rumor has it that he plans his days around his meals, he loves it so much. And me, I'm kind of meh on food. I could take it or leave it. Although, I guess I have to take it because of the whole sustenance thing, but I don't go out of my way for anything special. (Ben is probably crying right now reading this.) But I've been thinking about him because I know I won't be able to return home to Pittsburgh without eating a lobster. He would disown me. And then he would talk my dad into disowning me. So I went off of my budget and had one this afternoon:

Before:

After:

I showed that lobster who's boss. And then had blueberry pie. (My apologies, though, to any vegetarians.)

• Acadia National Park: I was going to write about my trip to Acadia National Park and do a walk through on how to ruin a trip to a national park (which I realize I do because I worry so much about random, unimportant things.) But I'll save that for Yellowstone and just share a picture of me contemplating our existence while peering out at the ocean:

What I've listened to in the last three days:

"U" "S" "of" "A" (a four-disc mix by my friend Sara. She found songs about all fifty states, some states having multiple songs. Best. Gift. Ever.)

"Aereo-Plain" by John Hartford

"Neon Bible" by Arcade Fire

"OK Computer" by Radiohead

"On Avery Island" by Neutral Milk Hotel

"East is the Past" by Pete Bush (listened to 3 times in a row; its a must-listen CD)

"Peel Slowly and See (Disc 3)" by Velvet Underground

"Friday Night in San Francisco (Live)" by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia)

"Elliott Unreleased" (a mix I made of Elliott Smith songs found on www.sweetadeline.net. Side note: if you want to feel your heart melting, listen to his cover of "Jealous Guy".)

Audio book: Discs 2 and 3 of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Benched

Newport, Rhode Island. Not too shabby of a place. I drove into town at rush hour (once again; I've got to start thinking ahead about that kind of stuff) and made it to the hostel where I'm staying. I walk through the door and the owner talks a mile a minute about everything one needs to do when in town and she's giving me brochures and suggesting bike rides and where I should eat and what I should see and what tours I should take, etc. It all just got me vacation-overwhelmed. My thing about sight-seeing is that I don't really like to do it. And my thing about historical tours is that I don't really like to do those either. I think I feel some guilt about this. Its like when its a sunny day and everyone is outside playing but I really just want to take a nap.

I read that its a good idea to have a theme for a road trip. Like if you enjoy national parks then try to visit all of them or if you like golfing, try to golf in all of the states. The theme I came up with is to walk around town looking for good reading spots. This theme has evolved into a hunt for good benches. There are good people-watching benches: ones that are in the busier parts of town but slightly removed from the rush of people. There are good reading benches: usually these are somewhere off by themselves, and don't necessarily need to have the best views, just a bit of quiet and a bit of shade. There are good thinking benches: ones that have great views and few people. There are good talking-on-the-phone benches: view doesn't really matter for these but being away from other people is a must.

View from my bench Tuesday morning in Seneca Falls (it ended up being a talking-on-the-phone bench):

Leave it to me to want to travel thousands of miles just to sit. But I do it so well. Newport, at first, was a horrible bench town. The hostel is right in the busy part of town and my first impression was "there are too many friggin people." I knew I was at the beach but it felt like Times Square. And all prime real estate -- not even talking on the shore but around the town and around the streets -- is taken by fancy restaurants or fancy houses. The last thing they want here is people sitting around not spending money. So it was quite a search and I felt pretty hopeless. But today I explored and found some treasures, especially this one:

Oh, and I have a tripod for my trip. It sounds slightly pathetic at first that I'm working so hard just to get myself into a picture and that I don't have anyone to take a picture of me; but its actually fun. You get to play with this spider-like contraption and set it up and focus it just so and then run over and get into place and let it snap the picture and then run back and check to see if you are even in the picture and, if so, how you look and if you have a double chin and if this is the case, try again. I suggest going out and giving it a go sometime. (Although, maybe I'm just saying this to get everyone to get tripods for taking pictures of themselves so that I don't look so ridiculous.) This is also a heads up that when I look like I'm nice and relaxed in a photo, really I have just run over and struck a casual pose. (Refer to top picture for example.)

What I've listened to :

"Legends" by Bob Marley

"Bachelor No. 2" by Aimee Mann

"The Magic Numbers" by The Magic Numbers

Disc 1 of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" audiobook

Podcast: This American Life (Social Contracts)

"Time (The Revelator)" by Gillian Welch

"The Grey Album" by DJ Danger Mouse

Good Intentions

Day one. First, to explain the above picture. I just wanted to show the healthy food that I intend to eat on the road. Let's all witness my food selection on my first day. We'll give this a couple more days on the road and I have a feeling the layout will be of Cheetos, 7-11 Big Gulps of Mountain Dew, a couple of slices of pizza and maybe a twinkie or two. Call me pessimistic but if I know me... And I must admit I have a pound of Twizzlers looking at me from across the room. They've already snuck into the mix.

Alright, the important stuff: I made it to my first destination, Seneca Falls, NY. Why Seneca Falls? Why not. I guess there is some kind of history of women's rights, blah, blah, blah but really its just a midway point to New England and is on the Finger Lakes, which I've always wanted to see. Oh, and its a village. It seems New York state is all about villages. They don't have towns. They have villages. I like it and I think Pennsylvania should get on the bandwagon with this.

I did all back roads. Pros: Its beautiful; there are fewer cars; you get to see trees and small towns. Cons: is not conducive to cruise control; there is a lack of public bathroom facilities (but thankfully, there are Sheetz, which tend to pop up in the middle of nowhere.) It took me about 8 hours total with a one hour stop in Ithaca. All in all, a good day. A little rough in some places but I'll learn as I go.

What I listened to today:

"Early Recordings" by Quasi

"I Am Not Afraid of You & I Will Beat Your A**" by Yo La Tengo

"Dark End of The Street" (mix from a friend)

"Jimi's Blues" by Jimi Hendrix

Podcast: Stuff You Should Know (Saunas: More Interesting Than You Might Think)

"Keep It Like A Secret" by Built To Spill

"Careless Love" by Madeleine Peyroux

The perfectionist in me is not ready to leave.

Oh, the dreams that I had about how perfectly prepared I would be for this trip. Tomorrow I move all of my stuff into storage and I am nowhere near the packed-up, ready-to-go state that I was hoping for.

Even worse, I don't have my car set for the Go-Go-Gadget way of living that I envisioned while daydreaming about this trip. I wanted to have compartments for everything. And compartments for my compartments. I practically wanted to hook electronics to a clapper-type level of ease. I wanted to be able to say "Get me a Diet Coke" and have some robotic arm reach into a cooler in the back seat and pop the tab and place the can in my cup holder. I wanted to be on a first name basis with my GPS device where she would say "Good morning, Sharon. Where to?" and then take me the exact scenic route I'd envisioned.

But, alas, I shall have cords running in all different directions into my lighter outlets, preparing to short-circuit the entire car. I'll have my trash in a plastic grocery bag on the car floor, if I'm lucky; most likely the trash will just be strewn around the car. I'll fumble dangerously with iPods and iPhones and CDs and GPS's and snacks and sweaters until someone calls the cops to report what appears to be a drunk driver swerving all over the highway (Just kidding, Mom. Safety first. Hands 10 and 2 on the wheel.)

Monday is go day. Saturday and Sunday are "run around like my head's cut off and having momentary lapses of freaking out and crying" days.

So the random photo of me at the top is a practice photo post. Right now I am only able to figure out how to post pics to the top of the page; although I'd like to position them on the page wherever I'd like. And to add captions. If you know anything about such blogging techniques, drop me a line in the comments section.

(The picture at the top is me looking dapper in Central Park last April. While striking this pose, a man walked by and yelled "Work it, Girl!". I took it as a compliment but he was probably just heckling -- those sassy New Yorkers.)

Have you ever seen...?

Quick post:

Doing research for trip. Looking at a bunch of travel sites for possible needed travel items and gritting my teeth, trying not to press the "buy" button. I come across this: Sani-Fem Freshette Feminine Urinary Director at REI.com. Well, have you ever...? Who knew such a thing existed? No longer can females complain about men just "whipping it out." Technically, they can because it doesn't seem there is any easy "whipping out" of this apparatus. I'm fluctuating between being appalled and thinking "Well, its about time. Why didn't I think of that?" For right now, I'll stick to appalled.

I love that in the description it says "Requires minimal undressing for discreet use". One had better be discreet when using this. Talk about freaking out your neighbor.

I Ain't Got No Job

I'm going to take my first couple of baby steps into this blog thing. Can we do some quick therapy stuff? I'll list some fears: that I'm going to write this first post and then give up on this project; that I'm going to hit the Pennsylvania/New York border, freak out and give up on this whole trip; that one day I will run for President of the United States or Miss America and something that I've written in this blog will come back to haunt me. There are quite a few more, but like I said, baby steps. We'll get to other fears later.

I'm pretty sure if you are reading this blog, you are privy to its purpose. I quit my job. I've given up my apartment. I'm packing my car and I'm hitting the road on the 16th of August. I plan on doing a road trip until I a)run out of money; b)get sick of it; c)find a city where I want to settle down; d)have car troubles and become too lazy to fix them to keep going. When I tell people about this decision, I'm asked the question: Why? and the best answer for me is "Why not?" Isn't that always the best answer? Perhaps I'll get into more detailed reasons later.

Alright, there is my first post. It may be the last post -- we'll see. I'm also concerned that if there is a way to edit previously posted entries then I will obsessively edit what I've already written until I've whittled it down to one non-descriptive sentence.

And I am aware that blogs are vehicles to be shamelessly self-centered and to assume that people want to know mundane details of your life and your goings-on. I accept the terms that I am indulging in such an activity. Just be warned.