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.

Day Twenty-Two

Saturday consisted of playing a round of golf in the morning, driving, eating a gigantic Hardee's Monster Thickburger, driving and some more driving. I have included a photo of the burger I ate at Hardee's. I actually wrote a paper in a sociology class my senior year defending Hardee's and their ridiculous sized burger. In my personal book of morals, no burger no matter what size, can ever be claimed as damaging to society. So eating this monster was of particular interest and really helped justify my views.

Here is some riveting reading if your interested. Totally got an A. Hardee's Monster Thickburger Paper

Day Twenty-One

Today started at 6:15am to say goodbye to Andrew and Stephanie and to get my bike onto a trail that led to the Mississippi river, 40 miles round trip from Cannon Falls through Minnesota country. So I rode, and rode, and rode to Red Wing, MN which is basically Wisconsin. On my way over I stopped six times. One time because there was a deer and it's fawn in the path staring at me like a deer in bike reflector, one time because a wild turkey was on the path, one time because I saw two eagles being chased by birds smaller than pigeons and that came off as peculiar. And the other three times I stopped because I was choking on bugs. Once I arrived in Red Wing I parked on a park bench and finished the book Brave New World about a dsytopian future. It was a fascinating read and really was something fun to wrap my mind around as I sat on the river. The book is based on a bleak future of world order by intense social control where feeling and free thinking is totally abolished through caste systems, extreme behavioral conditioning, and just some really crazy stuff that turns people happy all the time, but totally mindless. Society is at peace, there are no diseases, life's pleasures are at a whim.. but at the cost of free will and being numb to life. The optimism of the whole thing is that there are a few who are able to question the system. They realize that in it is not just the happiness and pleasures in life that give us the human experience. It is the pain, the sufferings, the challenges that we encounter in life that make happiness genuine only through the reference points of feeling life's downturns. We have the opportunity to live mindlessly through life's distractions and work through the system, or we can choose to really feel life.

"And that is the secret of happiness and virtue- liking what you got to do. All conditioning aims at that. Making people like their inescapable social destiny." - The Director, Brave New World

Day Twenty

Thursday morning I packed up my belongings and left the Nesvig's home. The night's rest helped me recover from my crushing Farkel blow the evening before.

I drove into St. Paul and left my truck in a park to explore the city on bike. I know this sounds a lot like yesterday's post, but rather in the other twin city. However, I assure you that yes it was pretty much exactly the same, except for the fact that I had a Chipotle burrito for lunch making the day totally different.

After reading on the river for a while and conversing with some new friends, I packed up and headed down to Cannon Falls to stay with Andrew Holloway and his wife Stephanie. Andrew and I played football together at PLU, Stephanie didn't quite make the team. It was much fun to hang out and laugh at stupid things and eat good food. Some of the simple joys of my visit came from the stories these two west coasters had about their adjustment to Midwest life. Tatertot hot dish anyone? And from dubunking Waterworld. Here's our criteria: 1) You'd think that if it took hundreds (thousands?) of years for the earth to turn into an ocean, in that time wouldn't all the inhabitants of Waterworld lose their southern accents. 2) If the Earth is all water, why is everybody so dirty all the time? I'm sure the conversation is open to suggestions and theories.


St. Paul from that park I left my truck at.