Day Twenty-Nine

I woke up at about 6am. I slept under the stars by the beach sand dunes and had one of my better nights rest. Last night, there were some lightning storms in the distance which made the experience pretty fun, and the sea breeze made the temperature and bugs bearable.

As promised John and Kelly came and got me and the three of us went out to Gritz Grill where my breakfast consisted of sweet tea, biscuits & gravy, and grits. I was told that was the most Southern thing they had on the menu. So one stomachache later, I went to my car that decided not to start and with a few whacks here and there I get it running. A North Carolinian approached me and said, “You bruck dun?” I responded with, “Nope. All fixed.” Which then he opened his toothless mouth and from about 6 inches past my personal level of comfort yelled, “Well then Carry On!” You definitely had to be there but I got a lot of personal joy from that interchange, and it’s my blog anyway.

Eventually I hit the road and jumped on a ferry to the next island, Ocracoke. I had an hour wait so I went to a beach restaurant and ordered a fried fish sandwich that apparently comes with one side still covered in scales. So one more stomachache later, I jumped on the second ferry on which I am writing from now and I don’t really know where it is taking me.


John and Kelly riding off into the redneck sunset on their bike.


Some surfers from Virginia I hung out with.


My truck was the last vehicle on the ferry which was pretty cool because I had a seat right on the front of the ship. I offered the people around me a seat but their decline might have been more of a personal hygiene issue.

Day Twenty-Eight

I drove to North Carolina which rivals North Dakota for "the most miserable drive yet" award. The temperature was about 100 degrees with probably the same in humidity, and I finally hit really ugly traffic. However, being as dangerous as I am on my GPS, I skillfully rerouted into what I believe was “Hill Billy Mecca,” where tractors were a kinder change of pace. The South is gloriously awesome. Needless to say, I have begun counting Confederate flags.

I drove through Kitty Hawk and am working my way south through the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina. I stopped on the first island where I grabbed a camp site, didn’t set up a thing, and ran and jumped into the Atlantic. This was an amazing feeling and the accomplishment of the last four weeks hit me hard. So I threw my hands in the air, let out some man-yells, and did some body surfing at sunset. On my walk back to my site I met John and his wife Kelly. John is the most incredible redneck I’ve met, and his wife Kelly is being converted to his ways, as she is a native Yankee and John's redneckedness is far too overwhelming for her to have any chance at all. John is about 6 foot 5 with one of the gruffest man voices I have ever been jealous of, so naturally I hung out with these two for about three hours. He told stories of his friends “BobCat” “Hound Dog” and “Dan Boone” and they all had something to do with drinking, farming, hunting bears, or heavy machinery. John is a 3rd generation farmer on the same land and has never been past Kansas, he says he has friends that have never left the county they grew up in, nor do they have electricity or running water. His stories often were littered with “reckon so” and “He dun shot his nephew” and some really creative swearing. I laughed and laughed and tomorrow morning the three of us will go into town for what he promises is a real Southern breakfast. He also wants me to make sure I don’t leave town without a Confederate flag. I can’t even begin to retell his stories, some because of the language barrier, and others because I laughed so hard I missed most of important information.

John and Kelly have an open invitation to the West coast.


Here was my view of the Atlantic. Odd that the sun sets over the land.


This is the South.


Just some pretty beach with houses in Kitty Hawk.



Here is Dismal Swamp, North Carolina. In another section of the swamp there was a Confederate flag posted in the middle but I was driving and couldn't get out my camera fast enough.

Day Twenty-Seven

Thursday I drove up to Annapolis to meet my high school buddy Justin North who is a marine studying at the Naval Academy. He showed me around campus and introduced me to his friends and we even went and watched Midshipmen football practice. Practice and visiting the athletic facilities was quite the thrill as I was recruited by the Naval Academy to play football, but did not have the SAT scores, nor the desire to have the next ten years of my life booked solid. The current head coach was the guy that pulled me out of class in high school to talk Navy in ’03, an assistant coach at the time. I reintroduced myself and he remembered his visit to Arcadia. It was pretty neat to hang out in the locker room and Justin seemed to know a lot of the players.

After a dinner of hot wings at Chili’s with Justin and some good catching up, I headed back to my campsite about 60 miles South. I found my tent to be nearly 95 degrees and the lack of airflow made it quite the sweaty experience. I slept on top of my bag in my new and very short Marine issue PT shorts (thank you Chris and Jens). The night was full of interesting sounds so I slept with my running shoes and headlamp on, with my knife in hand. I couldn’t think of any harmless animals that made sounds like what I was hearing, so I decided that if one wanted to nuzzle with me I was going to run.


Me and Justin at Chili's


Navy Midshipmen locker room.


Navy practice.

Day Twenty-Six

Wednesday morning I awoke in a field about a football field in length and width and it was all to myself. The night before I rolled into my campsite in moonlight and firefly fits, and it was a little difficult to see just how big my plot was. With unknown size came unknown sounds, the groans of what at the time I decided were swamp zombies and freight trains. To my dismay I was correct about the trains, and armed with knife and flashlight I discovered the other terrible sounds were coming from hundreds of gigantic toads in the neighboring swamp.

The heat woke me up in the morning and so I left the outskirts of Cleveland and headed to Virginia. Today I passed through Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and now I am in a tent just a few miles north of Quantico, VA where I visited my two friends Chris deVries and Jens Gilbertson at their marine base.

The visit to the base was a great experience and I was able to get a more clear understanding of what Marine officer candidacy is all about, and what my two friends went through in their past two summers on the base. I have all the respect in the world for these two-second lieutenants. In all of today’s circumstances, why would two college educated young men choose to become officers in the Marines? My conclusion is that at this time, I don’t believe they would be satisfied doing anything else. They are tested and challenged to push their thresholds and understanding of personal possibility further everyday. It is difficult to articulate all of the feelings from today’s conversation, I am just very impressed. Not by the physical or mental challenges, but the whole ideal of that military branch and the reasons why my friends joined. I am jealous, in awe, and inspired. Thanks guys for making the time! I am waiting on Chris to email me some photos from our hangout.

But in the meantime, below is a video I prepared during my eight hours driving today. A month in your car will lead you to do funny things with your time. Some people in the car next to me enjoyed my rendition of "I want to know what love is" by Foreigner, but you only get the "Final Countdown" by Europe.

Day Twenty-Five

I also hate Indiana and Ohio toll roads. 1) Because they are there. 2) Because they cost more and it is completely arbitrary. 3) And because by the time I did an entire cost benefit analysis in my head of the toll vs. going out of my way to take another highway, I was already at another toll and had to pay again.

In other news Indiana had a lot to offer today. I visited Notre Dame home of Rudy, heartthrob Brady Quinn, and touchdown Jesus (below). It was a very cool campus and had that "I'm a really old campus feel." To kill some time before the College Football Hall of Fame opened, I visited a small used bookstore and asked the owner if he had any recommendations, he replied with "I don't read," which I thought was a very odd response for a used book store owner. So I left, read my own book, and then fell asleep in a park. The Hall of Fame was awesome and for the first time I really missed playing football. There was this awesome tri-screen film of just wicked hits and huge plays which really got the hair on my arms standing straight up. I eventually found Frosty Westering's (retired PLU football coach) plaque/bust thing and we took a photo together. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005.


Touchdown Jesus at Notre Dame.


Pat Tillman: American Hero (If you don't know his story) Pat Tillman


The evolution of football equipment. The red bandannas were to distinguish teams, not for protection. At one point college football was almost banned by Roosevelt because of some 19 fatalities or something. Possibly bandanna related?


Here is me and and my football coach Frosty. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005. The guy who took my picture was very impressed that I knew an inductee.


Here is Frosty's close-up. He looks better in person.

Day Twenty-Four

Chicago has a gorgeous downtown. On Monday I spent most of the day on a Lake Michigan beach where I turned into a lobster and read a good portion of a book called The Shack, a parting gift from my best friend at PLU and his wife. I walked most of downtown and then the beach boardwalk until I found a perfect little nest between hundreds of people all out of their Midwest winter hibernation. It is an interesting crowd on Mondays down on that beach. I even learned a few words that I can't type on this blog because my mother and her friends read on a regular basis.

So in my best efforts to save some money while staying downtown with my buddy Nate, I decided to park my truck in a suburb and then ride the metro into town. He told me parking downtown was some astronomical rate. So I return to my truck three days later to find a parking ticket for $60. Sweetness. If you've never seen a Chicago parking ticket, you can check mine out below.

PS: I hate Chicago toll roads. I don't think one should have to stop every 8 miles to pay 40 cents. So in an act of civil disobedience I started blowing through them. We'll see what happens.


Here is downtown Chicago from Navy Pier


Here is Kelly in front of downtown Chicago from Navy Pier



Here is some sweet guy that works facilities on Navy Pier that doesn't want you to bother him for an autograph.



Here is my first parking ticket ever.

Day Twenty-Three

Sunday consisted of walking around Chicago with my buddy Nate from LA who is in town on business. Having a friend who travels as much as he does is a real blessing to the vagabond, especially when it means a free night at a sweet hotel in downtown Chicago. We saw the beach on Lake Michigan and laughed at the waves and the million people all packed in the mile stretch of beach in Chicago. I think the ratio of people to grains of sand was 1:1. After traveling a bit we took a break and napped, followed by a Chipotle run where we met Horace. Horace is a homeless man with a degree in political science from Depaul University (he showed me his alumni card) who kept telling us that the white man is going down. So naturally we bought him a beer and hung out for a while. We talked politics, family matters, and more about the white man going down and Nate was even kind enough to let Horace borrow his cell phone so he could make a few calls. After we said our goodbyes Nate got about four calls from whomever Horace was calling and we couldn't understand any of what she said, but I hope she keeps calling Nate cause I think it's hilarious.

I forgot my camera when I was walking around today, so no new photos.