roadtrip part 2 - from mike's to the belly dancing recital

after hell... we headed to Mike's in Marysville, MI... which just so happens to be right across the river from Canada and the city just on the other side from Mike's apartment is Sarnia. Sarnia is actually where the 'Griffin' family homestead is... anyways, time with mike consisted of sitting, sleeping, movie watching, eating, phase 10, true colors, and drinking... it was fun.



from Mike's we moved on to the longest leg of our journey... the 12 hour drive to long island went relatively smoothly... no major mishaps, and plenty of good music.

In Long Island we stayed with Erin's friend Lindsey and Lindsey's fiance's parents. Their house was awesome, and Vinny, the father-in-law to be made us breakfast each morning.

Our first full day in NY we took a train trip into downtown NYC. Our first stop was ground zero, which much more than a whole in the ground is a bustling and busy construction site as they work on the freedom tower. So instead of showing you a picture of the cranes... here is a beautiful one of one of the trees in the cemetery of the church just across the street from the World Trade Center. It is a beautiful church that was a big part of the relief efforts after the 9/11 attacks.



After ground zero we walked until we found a spot where we could get onto the double decker bus tours. Now the double decker bus tour is a tricky thing, and is only ever as good as your tour guide. I'm not sure that we really perfected that of this journey, but the great thing about NY's bus tours, is that you can always get off and wait for the next bus. Here's a pic of Lindsey and Erin pointing out something very specific...



and of course, some of the sites...





After our long day in the city, we made it back to Long Island before midnight. The next day we have a lazy morning, and then in the early afternoon erin and i left long island, and headed to the bronx to visit with our friend Joy.

Joy just happened to be participating in a recital that day, which was awesome. It was the best part of NY for me, by far. The recital consisted of a variety of different performances by all the different classes at that particular Bronx Community Center. The atmosphere in the room was awesome, like out of a movie. There were over 50 kids in the room in different colored tutus, many also wearing tap shoes. it was great, and joy's class did a phenomenal job. Joy was awesome... and all the people around us were commenting on how they wish they had been in the class. I've only included one picture of the whole group, i'm saving the rest for blackmailing joy at a later date (i'm going to be rich someday).



after the recital joy took us to this awesome local pizzeria, john & joe's. joe was behind the counter, and once again i felt like what joy was living in was community and it was a very beautiful and tasty thing!

road trip part 1 - going to hell

day 1 of the trip i drove to chicago to pick up erin from the Huster household, and made some good time to Greg's in Warsaw, IN. Our first roadside attraction attempt was to see the world's largest fake nose and glasses, which was recently moved to somewhere in the furthest south eastern town of michigan. that attempt as pictured below, was unsuccessful:



we were forced to turn around after following a road closure, and an alternate route that led us to a no trespassing sign - if we had continued we may have been shot (thanks gps).

It was nice to see Greg for a couple of hours. We stayed the night, but were only really able to hang out with Greg during dinner at applebee's, and breakfast at BK. Thanks Greg for forcing yourself to eat some breakfast so I could spend some more time with you.


Following the breakfast at BK Erin and I set out on our next great adventure... We were going to Hell... Michigan. But we couldn't go alone, so of course we did what ever american does, and we stopped at Walmart to pick up some hand baskets and coordinating decorations. We took the time in the car to carefully decorate our hand baskets before heading to Hell... Michigan.


Hell was surprisingly lame (well maybe it shouldn't have been surprising). Hell consisted of about 3 buildings that included a general store and some restaurants that were selling things that didn't smell very good at all. The buildings were decorated with some tacky and ridiculous devils so of course we had to have our picture taken in their little photo ops...




While we were there, Erin had to go pee, so we stopped in the general store and asked where the bathrooms were... and wouldn't you know that the only place to go pee in Hell is in a port-a-potty...



all in all, it was pretty ridiculous, Hell didn't even have good postcards.

embarking

today i leave for a two week roadtrip.

the itinerary is as follows:

june 8th - pick up erin in chicago and drive to see the world's largest fake nose & glasses, then on to Greg's in Indiana
june 9th - go see world's largest ball of paint, go to Hell (a city in Michigan), then on to Mike's
june 10 &11th - hang out with mike
june 12th - drive from michigan to long island, new york going one of two ways, either through canada, or around... we'll see which way the wind takes us.
june 13 & 14th - hang out in new york, go to see ground zero, etc.
june 15th - drive to richmond, VA... the recently acquired malenke residence
june 16th - 18th - hang out with malenke family, celebrate chicken's 21st birthday
june 19th - drive from richmond to somewhere in indiana, possibly staying at a hotel with a ridiculously sized sneaker.
june 20th - driving to chicago, and stopping to see a pink elephant with a martini glass and possibly a large leg used as a sundial along the way... after dropping off erin, i'll continue to milwaukee to see my mom for the evening.
june 21st - drive home, do laundry and pack up to leave for younglife camp the very next day

hopefully there will be moments along the way when i will be able to chronicle the many events and happens with blogs and pictures.

i'm excited, you should be too.