how far out of the way would YOU drive, just for a joke?

here within will lie the conclusion to the lingering karow family recommendation.  but let's lead into it first...don't worry, you'll know it when it comes.

finishing airport exchanges in the mid afternoon, left the three of us [ now doug, anouk, and myself ] with loads of time to put some miles behind us before we called it a day.  it was to be an ann arbor michigan morning, so there was plenty to cover.  we didn't really find ourselves needing to stop all that often along the trip.  only pausing to take the required 'state border' photos and then keep on keeping on.  it wasn't until around [ well technically in ] battle creek, mi that we decided to stop for some grub.  ending us at the arcadia brewery and grille.  much of the town, all located on one main street, seemed to be closed, but we had hit the jackpot here since the kitchen was open for another thirty minutes.  anouk and doug got a beer sampler to share, 10 different house brewed blends...myself a plate of bbq'd chicken, 'a' with a salad, and 'd' with a bbq'd meat variety plate.  too much food, too much excitement, and too much lay before us to linger.  we pulled into the lamp post inn in ann arbor around one in the morning, snuggled in, and wait for the daylight to break.

the morning greated us with a tinge of a chill and a childlike aww from anouk to travel around the town, this being the location of some younger years spent.  pass an attened elementary school, the home of her living, and into the downtown-main campus area for some walking around...but mainly souviner shopping for her dad.  parking being what it is in many small towns and especailly one populated by college kids that have 'no respect for rules or laws', i pull into a thirty minute zone and check my watch.  we do the obligatory school bookstore stop and decide that it doesn't look busy enough to necessitate moving the car, we'll just do a small bit more of walking around.  one thing leads to another, t-shirt stop after post card stop after hot dog stop, and an hour plus has passed.  walking back to the car we hear some men mutter about a 'misouri' license plate and 'should know better than to be there for to long'; 'you can get double tickets parked there'.  well low and behold, there was a ticket.  flippen' 45 bucks!  and for what?  taking a little extra time to commerce your town?  fou-wee i say.  [ the ticket is still not paid.  what are they going to do...arrest me the next time i'm driving around in michigan for an unpaid parking ticket?  sorry parentals, i'm sure that's not the right choice... ]

this event did put a small damper on the mood of the day, but we fully blaimed doug...him being male and thus obviously a bad influence for the luck.  traveling on.  we headed to cleveland, ohio and the rock n' roll hall of fame.  quite a interesting site if you're looking to check out memorialbilia, but if [ to me ] you're really intrigued by the history of it all: how it came about, who started what, where, with whom, and how; this doesn't seem to be the place.  and you can't take pictures inside anywhere.  even without a flash!  bummer.

there was a lot to see though, which made us hungry.  from the food network show 'the best thing i ever ate', i had come acrossed a recommendation for lolita's in southern cleveland for fried brussel sprouts.  heck, let's give them a try.  it ended up being in this really nicely decorated and mid-upscale restaurant in the middle of the nowhere ghetto area of town.  reluctant to leave the car unattended but curious more about the food, we entered.  and i must say, those sprouts were amazing.  they had capers, anchovies, olive oil, and garlic in them and you can tattoo your name on my forehead if i don't testify that they quite frankly tasted like onion rings.  soupy oily [ :( ] but splendidly delightful to the taste buds.  this dinner was also called to order not only to satisfy our bellies, but to decide on the plan of attack for the next day.  original original plan [ being pre-doug ] was to drive through canada and get to niagara falls for some glory.  but him traveling with us and without a passport lead us to the next original plan, which was to drive the u.s. side to niagara falls for some glory.  but after my time spent with the karow's, another options was thrown into the mix.  it would be to visit connecticut and a small town named...wait for it...wait for it...mianus.  honestly and truly there was at least an hour long debate about which option was the right choice.  pro's and con's.  how long and in what direction we would be driving for the rest of tonight.  and what we could do and see in each of the places.  and wouldn't you know what we chose...

mianus was just a blip on the map, an unheard of destination up until two weeks prior, and about eight hours in the opposite planned direction, but somehow it won out over the falls of niagara [ probably because you can no longer ride in a wooden barrel down them.  just kidding ].  pronounced mya-noos by a local, we found out that there was indeed no town named such, that it was just a river.  until we found a street sign!  then there was a totem pole...in mianus.  we found a moose head...in mianus.  found a sign for slow kids playing...in mianus.  the options seriously endless, as well as the laughs.  it never got old, and frankly i don't see the hilarity slowing down any time soon...in minanus.  :)  we easily killed four hours plus goofing off and wandering around.  trying to find other awkward sayings referring to the referred to place.  having spent the night in bloombery, pennsylvania, already six hours into driving, and finding ourselves running on sleep caught between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m., the six additional hours to boston seemed just a stretch too much.  so i called long time best buddy ol' pal jenn in providence and we crashed her pad.  it wasn't no big deal.  we just went out to eat at julian's where there dessert menu has a picture of kiss on it and you can drink a bee sting.  some kind of gin drink, i didn't even try to go near it.  honey, lemon, something, something...there might be a third something too.  i don't remember.  the night carried on late with some games and enjoyment, the next days would be bitter sweet as our trio's travels had but two days remaining and i, having grown accustomed to the companions, would definitely be sad.

notable michigan:

     1.  much of this was noted from constructions zones, because it seemed as if much of the state's road were underconstruction.  any-who, they have straight flashing lights for when there is a lane closed and cones set out to block it.  it's not any kind of move over indicator.  these signs are miles into a project...suppose they are just there to remind you. 

     2.  and secondly in construction areas, how to word this?  imagine three lane traffic heading in both directions.  well the north bound lanes want to do some repair, so they close down two lanes, leaving one, but then also take the south bound down to two, and use one for north traffic.  thus the split one direction of travel, but leave all of the roads in complimentary numbers.  it was quite strange the first time to cross the median with cars still traveling beside me...but so far away.

     3.  noted by anouk and doug, the highways are littered with adult stores.  so many.

notable pennsylvania:

     1.  they paint dots on the road so that you know the minimum distance you should be behind someone.  no tailgating.

     2.  there were all kinds of detour signs, each with their own colored arrow.  i'm guessing perminent detours, but i didn't really get it.

     3.  noted doug:  random port-a-potties along the highways.

notable connecticut:

     1.  astro turf lawns.

     2.  lemons in the diet drinks [ learned that it's a new england thing.  along with leaving a bit of straw wrapper on the top of the straw but placing the straw in the drink, instead of just handing you a completely wrapped straw to open on your own.

     3.  'reduced salt use' signs for the winter time [ also new england common ].

big cities, big fun!

where to start?  what to say about the first night in chicago [ or come to experience, any night any chicago with crazy kristen and crazier anouk ]?  from the hotel's guide book, we looked up a couple of catchy and close by bars and nightlife to cap the night, but first things first was the recommendation to go to kingston mines.  a live jazz, bar, and better than bar food club located a couple stops north off the blue line subway.  jazz?  food?  travel?...i'm in!  the atmosphere local and familliar, most people not scared to dance and 'feel the music'.  especially when mrs holly the maxwell got on stage and sang with what her momma gave her.

after finishing some time at the mines, we decided to go to a game bar closer to the hotel.  with 'game' i am suggesting the use of boards and cards, not mind games.  we got there, guessing, probably around midnight...the place seemed pretty empty so we headed to the bar.  got a beverage, but let the games go when the conversations started.  kristen and i with each other.  anouk with an enthusiatic regular, as her son was one of the bar tenders.  this woman soon absorbed the rest of the night.  and i'm not exactly sure about how anouk got stuck with her other than she's a warm person, easy to talk to, and likes to talk to others.  i guess sometimes that combo works in your favor and sometimes you get what's about to happen next. 

elvira [ her real name we didn't find out until the end, is paulina ] started by educating us in the art of finding the cheapest beers in the city.  which hagen daz vs. another, or bar happy hour's where a hoax or the real deal.  she even got into a five minute debate with her husband about whether the price was $2.50 or $2.75...seems like splitting hairs, eh?  once that topic got too heated and exhausted, she moved on to her next trick.  i mean knowledgable category: auditioning for america's got talent as the one and only u.s. female baritone.  she then proceeded to seranade us with 'good night sweet heart' and some 'om-bopa, om-bop' elvira theme song, endeding with a crowd search for a third song; as she was sure that she would make it into the third round [ purely on the entertainment factor.  dressed as elvira ( she's been practicing for years from a cardboard cut out).  but sure that the third round was up in the air and that she wouldn't make it to the top 40 or how many make it to the big show round. ]

and as we were so politely trying to leave, really having had enough of the day, she wanted to extend to us her wonderful picture taking abilities [ being that she is half asian, and they can have some magic  behind the lens ].  then it came time for her husband, a 60's something 'still dang good looking' gentleman to have his turn so that she could be IN a picture.  as he's about to push the button, he says ' you're all dark.'  to which she replys ' it's cuz you got your finger over it dumby.'  all in all, she was interesting, fun, and well intentioned, but jeez...what a welcome to the city.  :)  we then trekked it home, tucked in, and looked forward to another day of who knows what kind of characters.  we tried an early rise, actually making it out the door some where around ten, and headed down to the navy pier, on a sunny but not extremely warm day, to check skyline boat tours and the like.  we noted the times of the day for the tours and i having been in contact with russelle [ a high school and current buddy that i was wanting to see ] for a lunch plan, we were left just putzing about until we met up at the original billy goat tavern.  'cheezeborger, cheezeborger, cheezeborger.  no pepsi, coke!'

lunch was fast, good, and great to see russelle.  so much so, that we decided to meet up again for dinner and us three travelers were left to our own devices for the rest of the afternoon.  did some millinium park, 'the bean', harris theatre, and the art institute of chicago museum walking.  the city is amazing.  from just the few times that i have been there, i want to go back again everytime.  it's got such an easy feeling.  pretty easy to get around in, and freindly in the un-pretencious ways that some cities can start to take on.  getting on to around four o'clock, we headed back to the pier to catch a boat and some history and views of the city in a different way.  a different way it would be, because directly and approximately the second that we stepped on the boat...the city got fogged out.

it was quite ironic the timing, because as we were listening to the story of a large fire and the burning down of almost the entire city, we were seeing a white screen in front of us...and it got cold.  briskly windy and just plain dreary.  we finished out our hour long tour by sitting in the inside hull of the boat and deciding what we would like to do for the rest of the evening, being that the planned trip up the hancock tower to see the view was now out of the picture.  when we got back to the pier, we did some walking around the shops and found ourselves in the middle of quite an impressive stained glass exhibit. tiffany stained glass that is, real old.  then booked it back to the hotel, spruced ourselves up, and decided on a fondue place for dinner [ kristen was feeling a little adventurous ].  dinner was awesome, with plenty of laughs and russelle, her partner jenny, and there friend kat as joiners too.  it's nice to get to hang out with people that you haven't seen in quite a few years and everything just seems to fall back into place.  i like it!

after dinner was a night out in wrigleville..which we didn't realize would be so quiet.  i guess with the cubs not playing and it getting into football season, the area can get a little quite.  not to mention the monday night aspect of it all.  we did some bar hopping until we finally came across a little gem [ and by gem i  mean some other people to hang out with ] at mullen's bar.  there were three guys chillin', havine a guy night, that seemed like a good group to introduce ourselves too.  consisting of dale [ a chicago-ian, thus nicknamed 'chicago' ], trevor [ from boston, nicknamed 'tre-vah' or 'bah-ston' ], and dustin [ from chicago and going through a break-up, so sorry to say, but nicknamed 'depressing'.  he just was not enjoying himself. ]  we closed down mullen's bar, but weren't feeling the need to take the train home yet, so we popped over to an open later night bar.  ended up just sitting around and chatting for a-good-nother hour or so until we indeed, closed down another bar.  we're getting on to 3, eh pressing 4 in the morning.  decide that it's time to read the writing on the wall and call it a night.  but jeez, those boys were funny.  we even got dale to put on anouk's heels and try to walk the couple blocks between the bars.  needless to say, i think that he'll have sympathy for a woman in the future if she says that her feet hurt and wants to walk slower.

the next day seemed to go by far too fast.  we did some walking around michigan avenue, made a stop at the lego store to build ourselves men, and grabbed a stuffed pizza at giordano's on rush.  now the time had come, the very sad moment, when kristen was to fly back to kansas city after some of our most wonderful time together.  see you later, gator!  but happiness would soon show it's head as anouk and i still had many miles to travel, and we would also be joined by another

slo-cal, dougie fresh. 

notable illinios:

     1.  the use of fractions on mileage signs.  as in 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, etc. 

     2.  anouk made the acute observation that they have a billion and a half bowling alleys.  we didn't know if this was because when the weather gets cold, it's nice to have something to do.  if it was because as a total city, they idolize the movie king pin. or if it's just a noticed coinsidence.

    3.  accident roll out sites on no shoulder highways.