Day 20: NYC to SF

What's this? The last morning awaking on a air mattress. Thank you Sarah! Still raining.
OK. Has anyone taken' a Virgin-American flight? It's like a club. Neon lights & techno music as you enter. The bathrooms play reggae.
Should we prepare for take-off or get some glow sticks?
The touch-screens have all the TV channels, tons of music, and you get lots of movie selections. This is so much better than sitting on your feet, wrenching your neck, trying to see "License to Wed."

Isn't it crazy that we get in these aluminum birds and fly at 550mph? Okay...don't think about it.
I totally thought this one was going to hit us.
Somewhere over Missouri. Did I mention the touch screen TV has a quick link to Google maps and you can see what cities your over. Super neat.

We're home!! So sad. Time to unpack.

Day 19: NYC (Part 2)

Walkin' through lower Brooklyn on our way to the Toyota dealership. So if you read about how we got rear-ended on Day 17 by a guy named Friday, you know why we're here. Friday didn't want to go through insurance and neither did we cause it wasn't our car. Anywho...he said he would give us cash for the broken reflector (30$). The previous night we met up with him, and I demanded $40 because our hassle = $10 extra. He wouldn't budge at all, but as soon as Shannon piped in he buckled and gave us our $40. As a married couple, we argued with Friday on a dark NYC corner for $40 and won. NYC experience complete.
We saw "A Salt & Battery" on the Food Network's "Throwdown with Bobby Flay," and the fish n' chips cook from here beat him...so we had to stop by. Yum!

In NYC you have to shop, even if it's raining. Nathaniel found the coolest coat ever...but it cost $799 so we ate a Starbucks cookie instead.

Dude! It's my buddy from South Dakota! Noooooooo!
Shannon has a new favorite beer: Delirium Tremens.
Look...they even pour it in a cute glass with pink elephants on it.
Time to see Tyler! Tyler is my good buddy and old college roomate that was chosen at random by the University of Washington to have the bottom bunk. Those computers picked a winner. He moved from Seattle to NYC with his lady friend Lisa 3 months ago. Lisa is in nursing school and Tyler got himself a career.
Tyler in his brick kitchen.

Nathaniel and Tyler only 4 weeks ago in Kauai contemplating jumping into an ocean watering hole.
Sweet!
After dinner...you must have cupcakes. It's a rule.
Cute little cupcakes. Cute couple too.

Day 18: NYC (Part I)

New York Diner. We sat next to two therapists that discussed their practices. They also discussed their headshots that go in some therapist directory. Her quote was "I knew when I walked out of my house that day, that I was going to take a great picture. And I did." Albino metal roots.

We had a really late night out and slept in. We awoke to lots of rain, so all we could do was catch a movie. Hey man...we're worn out and need to chill.
I (Nathaniel) was walking home and I saw one of my favorite comedians: John Hodgman. He's on the Daily Show and is the "I'm a PC" guy from those Apple commercials. I didn't want to be a jerk and make him take a picture with me, so I instead was a weird stalker and took a picture of the back of his head.
Sarah holds our friend Katrina's cool kid Arlo. He loves olives.

Later it got a little crazy...cause Shannon is a werewolf.

Day 17: Pennsylvania to NYC

New Jersey. The garden state. More like the tailgater state. Neat. The Holland Tunnel into Manhattan.

Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn.
So we were in NYC for a grand total of 5 minutes and got rear-ended at a stop light by some guy that was in a big hurry. His name was Friday. We got hit by Friday on a Wednesday. Okay...it's not funny. Our little reflector got smashed. 4726 miles and 4 blocks from Sarah's house...we got hit. Lame.
Hey Sarah...it's us!! Um...about your car.
Sarah is so cool. She imports herbs from Israel and totally wasn't mad about her car. Nathaniel is going to get money from Friday and get a new reflector.

New York City pumpkin. We totally understand.

Takin' the subway to dinner. Nothing like the sweet autumn smell of the underground.

If your restaurant has bricks...it's gotta be good.
So sleepy and time for bed. Sarah is at warp speed.
Blowing up the air mattress takes great concentration and focus.

Day 16: Ohio to Pennsylvania

Welcome to Pennsylvania. It's raining. It's raining a lot.


Beautiful autumn tree.

Lots of beautiful autumn trees.
More trees?! Come on this is boring. Hey...I'm sorry this was a slow day.
Really nice rest-stops in Pennsylvania too. We don't know why we were so impressed with rest-stops, but we are used to the ones over the Sierra on 80. Old, nasty, rusty, smelly, with no doors or windows. Definitely no ceiling fans.OOooooo. A rock slide. Something did happen today.
322 miles of rain.Alright we made it to East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. They paint these giant dots on the highways so you know what a safe following distance is for the car in front of you. After watching the dots for while you get kinda hypnotized and watch nothing else. I think that might make the situation less safe.

Day 15: Chicago to Ohio

A Big Thank You to Ryan and Ann for being such great Chicago hosts. They are so easy. The day after Ryan landed in Kauai for our wedding, we made him wake up at 3am "Chicago-time" and hike 4 miles through the jungle to these water falls. What a sport!

Hello Squirrel. We are leaving Chicago today. No...you don't get any muffin. Bye Chicago!
Our 9th state.
Did you know that it costs money to drive on roads out here? Toll roads. I've only heard of Toll Bridges. It costs $4.15 to drive across Indiana.

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: Are we still in America? What year is it? Oh...wait...this must be a red state.
Hello Ohio. Did you know it costs $9.25 to drive across Ohio? This toll road thing is kinda lame.

We have crossed a whole lot of farm land on this trip...but nothing...I mean nothing...smells like parts of Ohio.
Ohio has cool rest-stops. They list all the hotels along the route and have a cool AccuWeather page. We are currently trying to outrun that green blob of rain.

Aaaaaa!!! It's the dead-dear-head death car.

What are these? We saw a few of them. Are they Ohio nipples?
What are these? We've seen these since Nevada. They usually say the town's name on it but what's inside of them? Anything?
The sun sets in Ohio.