Month: August 2004

Although we’ve never been to Cleveland before, we decided it would be too much to try to see the sights in Cleveland and also try to make it to Joyce & Sean’s wedding by 3 pm. Plus, we’ve been running so long on so little sleep, it seemed prudent to take advantage of the quiet comfort of a hotel room to catch up on some ZZZs. We’re sure to be back. One of my goals in life is to see a home game for every team in Major League Baseball, so unless the Indians leave Cleveland sometime in the next 10-20 years (unlikely!), we’ll be back to go to Jacobs Field, and we can check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at that point.
Continue reading “A Sunny Wedding Day in Cleveland” →

Today was mostly a travel day. After having a nice breakfast of canteloupe and “Timbits” (for Dunkin’ Donuts fans, the equivalent of Munchkins… for normal people, they’re donut holes) with Keith and Joanne, we loaded up the car around 9:15 am and headed out of Toronto at rush hour. Brilliant! It could have been worse, because we were moving pretty well most of the time, but it seems like the people in Toronto drive like maniacs. The rest of Canada wasn’t so bad, but these are big-city drivers, I guess.

We got to the border crossing at Buffalo around 11:30 and it took us about 10 minutes to get across. The guy at the border asked us even fewer questions than the Canadian woman had on Tuesday! Very impressive homeland security!
Continue reading “International Crossing #2: ON to NY then to OH” →

We slept in a bit at Keith & Jo’s apartment and awoke to a grey overcast Toronto morning. The weather didn’t really motivate us to skip out of the apartment and go sightseeing. Beside which, we still had to sort out the mess with paying the movers. We were both starting to get really frustrated with Fleet, Bank of America, Ayer Moving & Storage, and North American Van Lines.
Continue reading “Fun and Frustration in Toronto” →

This morning we woke up early and beat the rush for the showers. (Did I mention that the place we stayed at in Montreal had shared bathrooms?) We were packed and downstairs at 8 am, ready for the “breakfast” part of the B&B. It was the two of us plus a young woman from Japan who had just finished studying English in Vancouver for three months, who was traveling around Canada sightseeing. Belva took good care of us. We had tea and OJ, a sizable fruit cup, homemade bread for toast with jam, bacon, and eggs. Unfortunately she didn’t ask us how we wanted our eggs… they all came out over easy, which is not my favorite. She sat down and chatted with the three of us as we finished our breakfast. She told us a few stories about the house. Apparently she has only lived in the house for about 8 years, and only more recently decided to open it up as a bed & breakfast. Earlier in the house’s history it had been some kind of shelter for women, and in the early part of the century it belonged to a wealthy man who had a fountain in the middle of the room that was now an open dining room / living room. Very interesting.
Continue reading “Canadian Adventure: QC to ON” →

After sleeping in a bit, we awoke this morning in Lake Placid NY to a beautiful sunny day. It was a nice change from the rain we’ve had for the past two days. We watched a bit of the Athens 2004 Olympics before heading back to the site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympics. Dave didn’t have his camera with him last night when we were skating, so we went back to take a few photos of the rinks. We also got a chance to watch some figure skating practices, as well as some women (girls? hard to tell with all the gear on) hockey players either practicing or doing some kind of tryout. It was almost as cool as the night before – it was cool to see people who can actually skate using the rinks, but it was awesome having the place all to ourselves last night. This time, though, we got to sit on the U.S. bench in the 1980 arena before fleeing to avoid getting hit by pucks slapped by female hockey players.

Then we walked up and down the main street of the town a bit, to take a few more pictures, enjoy the beautiful weather, and take a look at the lake in the sunshine.
Continue reading “International Crossing #1: NY to QC” →

Today we left Dave and Kara Miller’s house in Sudbury MA with hugs and kisses from their boys, Sam and Josh. (As promised, here are a couple of photos of the room featured in the “Indian Ridge Road” episode of Trading Spaces… doesn’t look the way Frank envisioned!) Since I despise the Mass Pike and didn’t feel the need to drive it one last time, we took Route 2 out of Massachusetts. It was more scenic but slower, especially since it rained all morning.

By lunchtime, we were in the northwestern corner of Mass, in North Adams. We just wanted something quick and cheap to eat, but North Adams is not much of a fast food town. We didn’t really want to eat at McDonald’s, but since it was really our only option, we ate there quickly and then headed out of Massachusetts.
Continue reading “The Journey Begins: MA to NY” →

Our last day in Massachusetts began somewhat eventfully when Dave whacked our side mirror on the Millers’ fence, causing the front of it as well as the mirror itself to actually come off. Dave has been paranoid for a couple of weeks that we’re going to wreck the car in some way during our trip, so hopefully this gets it out of the way.

It was a great Sunday at NPC. The praise team was right on, the sermon was great, and there was no big “send off” for us – I didn’t want anyone to make me cry *smile*. After the service, many of the wonderful folks who have been our church family for the past 3 1/2 years came up to us to wish us well.

A whole bunch of the Young Adults went out for lunch at Pizzeria Uno for one last get-together before we leave. Originally they had planned a beach day, but Hurricane Charley pretty much prevented that.

After lunch, Dave and I took a good look at the side mirror situation and decided that we might just be able to pop it back together without seeking professional help. We went to Matt & Melissa Sagendorph’s new condo, where we got to see the progress they’ve made on their renovations, and where Matt helped Dave put the car back together. I’m happy to report that the mirror is back on and the side mirror looks intact, even though we can’t move it anymore using the adjuster thingamajiggy inside the car. Oh, well. I’m just thankful we don’t have to take it to the shop in the morning instead of hitting the road.

Then we got to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening chilling with the Millers. Sam and Josh will be SO big the next time we see them!

It was a long day for everybody, but the apartment got packed up, and the movers came and took our stuff away. They were very nice, which is great considering all the mover horror stories our friends have been kind enough to share with us over the past few weeks. But I guess I shouldn’t say anything yet, because the move isn’t over until our stuff is all safely in our apartment in La Jolla.

Before:

After:

But now we get to chill for a bit at Dave & Kara Miller’s house (famous for being on Trading Spaces last October… photos to come), play with the baby, watch some Olympics, and recover enough from packing and hauling boxes to actually get in the car on Monday and start heading west.

Sorry this is so pathetically short, but there isn’t much to talk about (all we did today is try to stay out of the way of the movers and then clean the apartment) and also it’s hard to be very eloquent on three hours of sleep.

For those who haven’t heard: Dave cut his hair off (yes it’s true!). Check out the photos.

We have set up this website so you can all track our progress as we make our way across the country, visiting various friends and places, the final goal being our new home in San Diego. We plan to post a travel blog and photos hopefully every couple of days as we travel, so come back often!

In the meantime, here is the planned itinerary for our trip:

8/16 Boston MA to Lake Placid NY
8/17 Lake Placid NY to Montreal QB
8/18 Montreal QB to Toronto ON
8/19 Toronto ON
8/20 Toronto ON to Cleveland OH
8/21 Cleveland OH
8/22 Cleveland OH to Saginaw MI
8/23 Saginaw MI to Traverse City MI
8/24 Traverse City MI to Chicago IL
8/25 Chicago IL to Minneapolis MN
8/26 Minneapolis MN to Fort Pierre National Grassland, SD
8/27 Fort Pierre National Grassland, SD to Badlands/Rushmore SD
8/28 Badlands/Rushmore SD to Hardin MT
8/29 Hardin MT to Yellowstone National Park WY
8/30 Yellowstone National Park WY
8/31 Yellowstone National Park WY to Grand Teton WY
9/1 Grand Teton WY to Salt Lake City UT
9/2 Salt Lake City UT to somewhere in NV
9/3 NV to Fresno CA via Lake Tahoe