The Last Days
tp: Saturday started with breakfast at Bond’s, and then we headed out. The plan was to drive all the way to Toledo, making Sunday an easy drive to the farm. This means driving from Minnesota through Wisconsin, through Chicago, through Indiana, and a good deal into Ohio. We made many stops though. First we drove into rural Wisconsin to see The House on the Rock. This is a bizarre tourist attraction built by the architect Alex Jordan, and is featured in the Neil Gaiman book American Gods. The house is filled with crazy rooms, knick knacks, mechanical music players, and other oddities. We got there right before closing and only paid for the first level of tour. The tour was entirely self guided, and offered no explanation for what was going on or what Jordan’s deal was. It is certainly something one needs to experience in person to get a feel for. However, we put a bunch of pictures on the picture page to try and convey what it was like.
The next stop was Chicago! Since we were passing through anyways, we decided to hand deliver Ian’s CD. He wasn’t around, so we taped it to his door. Then we went to the Bourgeois Pig and had a late dinner. By 10pm we were back on the road to Toledo, with an arrival time of 2:30am. We stopped at a rest are to use the internet and priceline a hotel, and found out it was already sunday so priceline wouldn’t work. We found a cheap-ish Econo Lodge instead. This one was a lot nicer than the one in West Memphis, and it ended up being about what we would have paid through priceline anyways. We also had forgotten about the time zone change, so it was really 3:30 when we rolled in.
ef: FACT: Indiana is the second worst state in the union to drive through. (the first being pennsylvania, more on that later). there was a lot of construction on the highway (80/90) and the tolls were ridiculous. we payed around $6 in tolls to risk our lives on a completely unlit, poorly marked, barely paved, wet highway full of tracktor-trailers.
On Sunday we drove what was supposed to be an easy 7 hours and turned into almost 11 due to accidents, roadwork, weather, and traffic. Most of the day was spent driving across Pennsylvania. We finally arrived at the farm around 10pm. We unpacked some things and had a little snack. We also had a chance to relax and watch some trailer park boys, which we had started earlier in the day while sitting in traffic. We are finally back and I guess it’s time to get back to work. Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who hosted us along the way. After we clean up and finish typing these entries, we will make a brief stop at Evan’s parents’ house before heading our respective ways to Brooklyn and Pomfret. TTYL!
ef: pennsylvania = ridiculous traffic and construction garbage-state
we were actually stopped. 100% stopped, in park on the highway for more than 15 minutes at a time...twice.
that said, it’s been a great trip and i’m glad we did it. PEACE.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
