Just In Time(scape) in Lafayette, Indiana

Yesterday I drove to Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University and more importantly, one of my friends from Warcraft, Justin aka Timescape.  I hadn't met Justin before, just played with him online, so I was a little nervous it would be awkward and we'd have nothing to talk about (except maybe the game).  Turns out I needn't have worried; Justin was easy to talk to and very graciously let me stay overnight in his cozy apartment.  (Thanks again, Justin!)

There's not a whole lot going on in Lafayette, but we walked around town, and I say there are definitely worse places a person could live.  But it's one of those towns where I wonder how anyone makes money, because everything closes at 5pm.  And since everyone works until 5pm, when do they go shopping or out for coffee, etc?

One surprise (for me, not Justin) was the free zoo in Lafayette.  It's pretty small, and connected to a city park/water park, but had a number of animals I would not have expected to find in a small town in Indiana:

Justin, attempting to tame the giant caterpillar.

These animals were much nicer than the dead and decaying cat we passed along the way to the zoo.  Poor kitty.  I'm not sure why no one has cleaned it off the sidewalk yet, because believe me, it was not freshly dead.  Photo available upon request.  (It's much creepier than the dead fish, and I didn't want to ruin anyone's appetite.)

[I'm having trouble uploading photos; will add later.  Photos added the following day.]

Grand Rapids, Michigan

I figured I should write every time I have the inclination and time, since I may have problems later on in this trip motivating myself to write.  Yay for self-discipline.

I spent the day hanging out with Annette, much of it at her apartment in Grand Rapids.  But this evening we went downtown for dinner, drinks, and a walk along the river.  Grand Rapids seems like a decent little medium-sized city, but more driving-oriented than I'm used to.  Getting around seems pretty easy, though, as the roads aren't too crowded.

I had a good day, but most of it was in that chatting-with-an-old-friend kind of way, so it was personally very rewarding but doesn't make for great blog material.  I expect several stops on this trip will be like that, so bear with me when it happens.  I'll be lonely and sleeping in cheap motels soon enough.  In the meantime, here are some shots of Grand Rapids:

That's Annette, standing outside the place we ate dinner.

Along the Grand River.

A heron I think, hanging out in the River.

He's about to be tackled by an Ohio State linebacker.

"Steampig" -- An entry in the 2010 Grand Rapids Artprize contest.  He didn't win.  He was robbed!

On The Road Again

After about 8 weeks of loafing and lounging in bed, in DC and Cleveland mostly, I'm finally on the road for the second part of my travels this year: My driving tour of the United States and Canada. Most people don't believe it, but this is the part of my year+ off that I've been most looking forward to. In fact, I've imagined doing something like this since I got my driver's license. The international trip was very cool and I'm glad I did it, but it was a fairly recent plan.

Starting point on the odometer:  72,406 miles (well, almost).

I might not write as much as I did abroad, in large measure because much more of my time spent in North America will be with friends, so I won't have to entertain myself each night by writing. But I plan to write a few times a week, with some short updates about where I've been and what I've seen. And if there are any particularly amusing or interesting stories, I'll share those. But I also anticipate that while this journey might be personally more fulfilling than my last -- because of how many friends I will share it with -- I might not have the same interesting things to write about. A night spend laughing and drinking with pals can be a hoot, but doesn't always make for interesting writing. We'll see. Anyway, on with the show...

My first stop was Astrid and Joe's new house (new to them) on the shores of Lake Erie, in Loraine, Ohio. They bought it last year and are super excited about it, and now that I've visited, I can see why.

Don't get me wrong, it's still Lake Erie, but the house and beach are pretty cool and they seem so happy about it. I didn't get to see much of Loraine itself, but it mostly looked like houses anyway, so I probably didn't miss too much.

It's alive!  ALIVE!  Oh wait...

The largest chunk of my day was spent driving to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit my high school girl friend (not girlfriend, if you're wondering) Annette. She's currently in the other room watching a Curious George movie with her son, but that sounded way too exciting for me after such a busy day, so I opted to sit in the bedroom and write. But earlier, Annette was kind enough to host a dinner party at some friends' of hers across town, so I got to meet a few other people from Grand Rapids. They seem to like it here a lot. I'll learn more for myself tomorrow when we go out to explore.

Some of the people at Paul & Marty's.

Oh What A Night!

Last night I saw Jersey Boys, the musical about The Four Seasons playing at Cleveland's Playhouse Square.  If you get a chance to see it, go see it.  It was a lot of fun.  I was prepared to subtract a star from my review because it's all non-original music, but that didn't matter.  The music was great and sounded fresh even though I knew almost all the songs.  Five stars!

And it made me think...  A man I know who grew up in New Jersey reminds me more of the laid-back, down-to-earth Midwesterners I grew up with than the blunt, cussing stereotype of Jerseyites.  He's never said so, but seeing the musical made me wonder if he considers me more Jersey than Midwest (minus the big lips and the big hair)?

In honor of The Four Seasons, here's my alma mater American University's unofficial theme song:

Heading off again soon

So... I thought that when I returned to the States on May 1, I would keep writing. Not every day, but every few days, at least. To wrap up my thoughts about my big trip, to write about my days loafing around DC and Cleveland, and what was coming up next. But no. I was LAZE-EE and frankly, bored of writing. I'm not a writer by nature and had to be very disciplined to do it almost every day on my trip. But I'll pick it up again because I'm about to start travelling again.

This time, it will be a road trip across North America! My route is ... well, all over the place, but I'm heading towards Iowa first, stopping to visit a few friends along the way. After that, I plan to see a little bit of everything, including Canada, but NOT including Alaska or Hawaii. The former is just too far away and the latter cannot be reached by car.

So watch this spot for a few more bits about what I've been up to lately and more importantly, to find out more about the USA.

The Tribe

The Cleveland Indians have the best record in the American League, but they're still shitty.

PS:  Real posts coming soon!