ChiroGames

So this weekend was chirogames at Cocoa Beach, which is when chiropractic students from all over the county come to compete in various different sports, Britney was signed up for tennis. We got there Friday evening, went to dinner at a place called The Pig and Whistle, or something like that. It was a bar….and bar food is always good food. We didn't really do much Friday night though, just hung out in our room with our roomies Josh and Lindsey and drank a few beers. All the other students there were crazy though! It was like one giant party all weekend long. I know that a lot of Palmer students stayed in the same hotel as us, actually I think all of them did, and they were absolutely nuts! It was a madhouse outside. Makes you wonder about doctors….

In the morning we had breakfast then drove over to the tennis courts where Brit was playing. Oh by the way, it was freezing Saturday! It was in the 60s and cloudy and windy. I didn't like it. Anyways, we watched a few matches here and there, and waited for the time when Brit would get to play…..but it never happened. The whole thing was pretty unorganized so no one really knew what was going on, and it turned out that some guy didn't show up for the team that Brit had to play, so they had to forfeit. So I guess she technically won, but was pretty peeved that she didn't get to play at all. So we left and had lunch and drinks with some friends, watched some beach volleyball competitions, and watched the air show. Oh by the way…..there was an air show going on! It was pretty awesome! There were fighter jets breaking the sound barrier and doing tricks and stuff, it was pretty sweet. We were at the point on the beach where they would turn around and head back to the good spots, but it was awesome nonetheless. After that, and going back to the hotel to nap for a few hours, a group of us headed to dinner to a place called Fish Lips, or as I would call it, Fish Tits haha. Probably the coolest part of the whole trip was right before we went into the restaurant, there were like four or five Navy guys (and girl) parachuting down from a military plane to the restaurant! They landed somewhere across the street from us and I later saw them at the bar. It was freakin awesome! What show offs. I took a picture of it with my phone.

So this morning we got up and headed home, stopping at Dunkin Donuts first, of course. While we were walking up, a man (I can only assume he was homeless) with his bike was sitting on the sidewalk trying to get my attention, so I went over to talked to him. He said something about the weather then asked if I could get him a couple of donuts because "he looooved donuts". So I said I would see what I could do. The guy in line in front of me said that he had already given him a dozen or so haha, so I brought him back one, a sprinkle one (good thing he looooooved sprinkle donuts) and he was chit chatting about  how when he was young, before him and his friends would go surfing, he would stop by Dunkin Donuts and recalls the coffee being soooo hot that….I'm not really sure what he said about it being hot actually haha, but he did mention that he would put his donut on the dashboard of his car and the heat would melt the icing off, so he would put the melted icing into his coffee. Seems logical. Anyways, we shook hands and parted. Brit and I ended up taking the long way home, through Cape Canaveral. I really really really wanted to see the launch pad…..but we never did. I'm not really sure where it is. We did see the Kennedy Space Center though, and some type of astronaut hall of fame. I really wanted to go to the Kennedy Space Center, but I'm sure we will visit it in a few weeks when Abby and Trent come to visit for Thanksgiving. We are supposed to see a rocket launch then! Can't wait!

So anywho, that's how the weekend went. Brit and I started writing our Bucket Lists tonight, but this post is getting long so I think I'll postpone that. Bye!


This cup was in our hotel room, thought it was funny.

 Heres Josh "planking" the beds

 You can just barely see one of the Navy guys (or girl) parachuting

Ben and Britneys Grand Adventures

Yep, we went on some grand adventures this weekend with lots of driving, lots of laughing, and lots of fun. And Id like to tell you a little bit about what went on. It all started on Friday afternoon, we all left work early, that is, the cemetery guys and I, which was great because I knew I had a long drive ahead of me that night so it gave me some time to get cleaned up and packed for our adventures. So I got home, ate some lunch, showered, got things together, and left around 1pm. I finally got my car back and fixed on Thursday, it only took forever to get it finished, and just in the knick of time for some roadtripping. And of course it was insanely hot on Friday and my air conditioning in my car wasnt quite up to par, so on the way down while I stopped to get some gas I also bought some freon to recharge my air conditioner. And, of course, I had no idea how to do it. So as I was fartin around with it for about 10 minutes, I asked the guy at the pump next to me if he could help. And of course, he didnt know how either. So I said screw it and went on my way.

Two hours later, I arrive at Britneys apartment in West Laffy. I took a little rest and we got everything together and packed up the JEEP. Yes, I said Jeep! If you know me, you know that I love Jeeps. Britneys mom has a really nice 2008 Wrangler and had let us borrow it for the weekend. I cant thank her enough for letting us take it, that was the highlight of my year, just having the privilage of driving it. Anyways, we set off for St. Louis from there.

Well, actually, before getting to St. Louis, we had to stop and visit one of her friends that she had met in Greece. I dont wanna say that we HAD to visit her, lets say that we WANTED to see her, just for the sake of me not getting yelled at by Britney. Anyways, she lived somewhere in central Illinois, Im not really sure where we were though, but the GPS did. So we went to TGIFridays with Melissa and her boyfriend, not sure what his name was, Im bad at remembering names. We'll say it was Dan, just for the sake of the story, he looked like a Dan. It was a pretty good time though, Melissa and Britney just gabbed the whole time so that kept us boys entertained. After a little while there, we hit the road again, straight for St. Louis.

A couple hours laters, we see the big arch! St. Louis was absolutely beautiful at night, the sky was clear and the moon was out, and there were big spotlights on the arch, it was great. Well, from what I could see in the 5 seconds I got to look because I was driving in heavy city traffic. It was great....for a while, until we ran into some construction that our GPS didnt know how to get around, and we got lost. Im not really sure why we got off the big highways, but I think that was the wrong thing to do. Oh yeah I remember why, I thought there was a detour so I was following a car that I thought would take us around the construction....but didnt. This place that we were stuck in was shady. I saw one white person the whole time we were in that neighborhood. I mean, I dont have anything againt black people, but when your from a small town like I am, this place is pretty scary. That turned my mood quickly. It was late, about midnight our time, I was cranky, and that place was the last place I wanted to be at that time. This is the time that Britney had discovered that I had inherited my fathers temper. Luckily she was the calm one the entire time. So we stopped at a gas station, of course I didnt want to but she made me, and asked for directions. I swear the directions just took us into deeper and darker places. So we just punched in the Fridays that we had eaten at into the GPS and got the heck out of there. We wound up back onto the road we had entered the city in, turned around, and found a bunch of detour signs that we had missed the first time. Whew! We finally made it to our hotel around 1:30am I think. We were both terribly exhausted.

The next morning, Saturday morning, I had discovered how nice our hotel room really was. I couldnt tell you what floor we were on, but it was up there! And we had a king sized bed, there wasnt a position I couldnt lay and have a limb hang over the edge, I think it was bigger than a dorm room! And the best part was, it was all free! And included a free breakfast!! We were in St. Louis to visit a chiropractic school that she is thinking about attending after Purdue, like a Day on Campus sort of thing, and the school payed for the hotel room.

So after our delicous free breakfast, we headed for the school. It was pretty nice, and they had a lot of credentials and impressive statistics, but ill say that the day on campus thing was pretty boring. Just a lot of people talking about how great the school is. But, there was a lot of free food. AND.......I got to see a dead body. During one of the tours, they took us to a lab where they have a bunch of cadavers, probably 30 or so, laying on metal tables, covered in plastic, waiting to be disected. They told us ahead of time that we dont have to go look, but of course I wanted to. So they pulled back the plastic on one, and there he was, cut open down the center of his back. The doc showed us some muscles and nerves and stuff. The entire time I was thinking about two things. First, my mind kept saying "so this is what lies beneath my feet at the cemetery." And second, "Those muscles sort of look like dark meat turkey." MMmmmm, turkey.

After our little campus visit that lasted most of the morning and part of the afternoon, we got back in the Jeep and headed for good ol' grampa Toms house. He lives about two hours from there, so we thought we'd make a visit while we were in the neighborhood. Once we got there, I gave her a tour of the town, we took some pictures of the huge energy windmill thingy, and then headed to nowhere else but the Cardinal Inn, my grampas favorite restaurant on the face of this planet. After conversing with anyone and everyone, we had decided that we wanted to go the bus derby that night at the county fair. If you dont know what a bus derby is, Ive run into some people who dont, its where people get old schoolbusses and wreck them into each other and the last one standing is the winner. Its the best thing ever. There was a lot of steam and fire and crunched up busses. While at the derby, we ran into a little bit of a thunderstorm. Luckily we were under a roofed stands, but man that wind and rain and lightning was nuts! After the storm passes, we watched a boring round of bus derbyness, it wasnt exciting because the rain had made so much mud that the busses kept getting stuck. So, we left after that. Went back to grandpas and went to bed.

The next morningSunday morning we got up, went to the Cardnal Inn for some breakfast, and decided to do some riding! That is, motorcycle riding. My grandpa has a couple of bikes so he lent me and Britney one for the day. We rode with my grandpa and a couple of his old retired buddies. I think we went about 80 miles that afternoon, down some back roads and some really nice places near the Illinois river, and I think we were running parallel to the Mississippi River for a while. I enjoyed it, and Im sure Britney did as well. She made a good addition to the bike. After riding, we loaded up the Jeep again, said our goodbyes, and heads back east for lots of driving, LOTS of driving. I was so freakin tired the whole way home, Britney drove probably most of the way back while I was in and out of conciousness. We got back to West Laffy, and after a long goodbye, we parted and I headed back to Bremen. I got back about 10:30pm. Whew, what a weekend.

It was great being able to visit my grandpa and especially nice to spend some time with Brit. Its amazing what you learn about someone by spending every waking moment with them, especially on car rides. She learned that I can have a bit of temper when I am cranky and lost, and I learned that she likes to change the radio station a lot haha. I kept my mouth shut until now, but once she reads this Im gonna get it. But all in all, it was a great weekend. Sorry for the long post, its hard to fit three days into a single paragraph.

Fall Break Part IV

TUESDAY
So once again we woke really early, AJ set the alarm for like 5:30 or 6am, it was still completely dark out. We wanted to get up before the sun came up so we could watch it rise, plus we needed to get off the beach before patrol came by and arrested us. So we packed up the tent and sleeping bags, headed to Dunkin Doughnuts for coffee and a doughnut, then to a Kill Devil Hills beach. It took a while for the sun to come up, we had to wait like a half hour or so, but when it came up over the water, it was absolutely magnificant. I couldnt believe how beautiful a sunrise would be over the ocean, the colors were so saturated, I wanted to paint it or something.

While leaving the beach we discovered that this beach actually had outdoor showers to wash sand off....so we whipped out the bottle of shampoo and washed up a little bit before we hit the road. Kill Devil Hills had a bunch of monuments for the Wright brothers since its where they took the first flight. So we checked out some monuments, then hit the road again.

This is the last day of our adventure, and we knew we had a long day ahead of us because we had to drive all the way back to West Lafayette. After leaving the Outer Banks, we hit Roanoke Island, which was also beautiful. Most of the drive through NC was pretty uneventful though. Once we got to the western part of NC, we hit the mountains again, which were gorgeous once again. We knew that on the way back home, we wanted to hit the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic road along the ridge of the Appallacians. So we got on that shortly after arriving in Virginia. This road was pretty awesome, every so often there would be a lookout so we would stop and look at the views and take some pictures. They were pretty astounding. The road was taking forever though, we were on it for a couple of hours, and the speed limit was only 45, so although it was scenic, we lost a lot of time there. Once we got off in Roanoke, VA, we got lost and couldnt find the interstate, we had to stop again and ask for directions. We actually had to back track, we probably could have made it through Virginia in like a half hour, but it actually took a good part of the day to get through. We finally made it to the toll road through West Virginia, and somewhere in VA or WV, we drove through Tobaccoville, which as you can image, smelled like delicious flavored pipe tobacco. So we stopped there at a Wendys and asked people where the smell was coming from, apparently there was a tobacco factory there, which makes sense. And once we got to Ohio, it was beginning to get dark already.

So we drove in Kentucky along the Ohio-Kentucky line for a while, drove over the Ohio River on another awesome bridge, and stopped again in Ohio. We were both pretty exhausted, I had to get a 5 hour energy shot at the gas station. AJ got coffee, and drove for a while till we got to Cincinatti. My energy shot wasnt very effective, it gave me a hyper drunken feeling. So in Cincinatti I got a Starbucks double-shot drink, I needed the energy since it was my turn to drive, to get us back to West Lafayette. Man, that drive from Cincinatti to West Lafayette was a struggle. AJ was in and out of conciousness the whole time, everytime he would doze off I would jerk the steering wheel or roll down his window to keep him awake, but it didnt help much. We would even be in the middle of a conversation, and literally after one second, I would look over and he would be asleep. What a horrible co-pilot. I was just singing really loud trying to stay awake, it wasnt too hard for me to stay awake since I knew the consequences of falling asleep.

But eventually, at around 2am, we made it back to school!! Ill tell you what, this is one trip that I will never forget, it was probably the best vacation Ive ever been on. And, surprisingly, AJ and I are still friends after the trip haha. A couple of times we both got cranky, but it wasnt a big deal since we were running on little sleep the whole weekend.

Here are some stats from the trip:
Miles traveled: 2,528
Fill-ups: 7
Gas Milage: Appr. 28-29mpg
Hours driven: Appr. 45 hours
Money spend:
-gas: $272.10 ($136.05 each)
-food for me: $22 for seafood dinner, Appr. $20 in coffee and misc.
-helicopter ride: $22
-total: $200.05 for me
States traveled through: 7

Surprising twist: Wednesday, the day after the trip, I was on my way to the Indiapolis Airport to pick up Stacee and Steven, got about 10 miles down the road, and my car broke down. It started to overheat, so I pulled over, then steam started shooting out the hood. It turns out, where the radiator hose joins the radiator, the connection is busted off, so I now have to buy a new radiator for my car. God was on our side for this trip :) His hand must have burned like hell holding that hose on the whole trip.


Watching the sun rise

Wright bothers sign

The hill from the first flight

Blue Ridge Parkway

Scenic outlook

The end of the adventure!

Fall Break Part III

MONDAY
Monday was also jam packed with adventure! Again, we woke up early, I think AJ set his phone alarm for 6:30 or 7am. So we got up, said goodbye to Steven and Stacee, and hit the road again. We drove for a few hours up the coast when I accidentally took a wrong turn to the Isle of Palms, an island off the coast. And since we didnt have a plan, we just went with it. We arrived at the Isle, found the closest beach, and watched the ocean once again. This time the weather was perfect, and there were some pretty nice houses along the beach. Also, I found a one-legged bird hobbling around on the beach, it cracked me up! AJ said that its other leg was just tucked under, but I still think it only had one leg. We didnt stay at the isle for very long, maybe 20 minutes, then hit the road again. We knew that we wanted to drive through Myrtle Beach, just to say that we've been there, so that was going to be our next stop.

On our way to Myrtle Beach, we drove through Charleston, SC. One of the highlights of the trip was driving over this big beautiful bridge. We could see it coming from miles away but had no idea that we were on the road that drove over it. What a shock! It was great though, theres pics below.

We arrived at Myrtle Beach sometime around noon, I think. Stacee had been telling me not to stop by Myrtle Beach, that it wasnt worth it, and was just a huge tourist attraction, but she was wrong, and it was probably my favorite stop on the trip. Shortly after arriving, we were driving down the highway when we saw a huge sign that said "Helicopter rides-$20." We looked at each other in disbeleif and agreed that we had to check it out. When we got there we found that it was true, the Intro flight was only $20. So we signed up, waited about ten minutes, then were in the air. This flight was the first time I had ever been in the air, I have never been on an airplane or a helicopter before. The flight only lasted a couple of minutes, we just made a small loop around Myrtle Beach and a little bit over the ocean. But we were so far up! Ill admit, I was scared for a second when we banked to turn. That was a great experience that Ill never forget.

After the helicopter ride, we headed to the ocean once again. I looked around for a while for a public bathroom or changing room so I could change into my suit, but for some reason there wasnt one anywhere along the beach. So....I changed on the beach, got as far down to just my boxers, put my suit on over them. Im sure people enjoyed that free show. Then we played in the ocean for a while, actually a pretty long time. The waves were huge, I mean, some of them had to be like 10 feet tall. After we played in the water, we had to scope the beach for some honeys, but unfortunately, the beach was full of old people and people that shouldnt be wearing anything less than sweats. I think we counted about three cute girls along nearly a mile stretch of beach.

After we left Myrtle Beach, we knew that we wanted to head to the Outer Banks, a long stretch of islands off the coast of North Carolina. It took us the rest of the day to get there. On the way, we did run into a few incidents. At one point, I pulled up to a guy on a crotch-rocket at a stoplight and once the light turned green I took off like a bat-out-of-hell to race him. I just wanted to see him fly past me, which he did. But that must have gotten him all excited, because for the next fifteen minutes or so, he kept driving crazy and doing tricks on his motorcycle to try and impress us. First he sat on top of the tank and stretched his legs out. Then he jumped off to the side of the bike and let his feet drag along the ground, which made his shoe catch on fire. He started shaking his foot to put it out, and it smelled pretty bad, we could smell burning rubber from inside the car. I pulled up to him at one point to tell him to stop because we didnt really feel like seeing someone die that day, but he couldnt hear because he had headphones in his ears. And......he died. Just kidding.

Later on, once it got dark, AJ was driving and kept whining about how dark it was. I think hes afraid of the dark or something. Plus, we kept missing our roads, and eventually got lost, we had to stop at a gas station and ask how to get to the outer banks. We had to drive all the way to the north part of NC to get to the north part of the outer banks because that was the only way to get to the islands, well thats what we thought at the time. But when we arrived to the northern outer banks, it was really creepy. It was night time, hardly any traffic, and nothing but swamps. Then I saw a random guy in overalls in the ditch facing the fields. I think he might have been a ghost or serial killer or something. That was pretty freaky. We finally got to our destination at around 11pm, stopped at a rest stop to brush our teeth, make a poopage, change clothes, then once again headed to the beach.

We stopped in a town called Kitty Hawk, which seemed like nothing but a residential area, there were nothing but nice houses along the beach. We got to the beach, scoped it out, then AJ brought up the idea to pitch a tent on the beach. I was hesitant, just because I knew that the other beaches had no sleeping as one of the rules of the beach. But we looked at the rules for this one and it never said we couldnt sleep, so we found a vacant house and set up camp right behind it in the sand. We got to bed at around midnight that night. It was tough falling asleep though because I was worried about getting in trouble for being on the beach, plus we thought the high tide might wash up and drown us. So I only got a couple hours of sleep that night.


The awesome bridge in Charleston
Nice houses in Isle of Palms
Isle of Palms

One legged bird

First flight ever

Banking over the ocean

Crazy dude on motorcycle

Just after sunset

Stay tuned for the final day of adventures!!

Fall Break Part II

SUNDAY
Sunday was jam-packed with adventure! AJ set his phone alarm for 7am, so thats when we got up. Sleeping in the car wasnt that great. My car is pretty small, and the seats dont go all the way flat, but I still slept well enough to get a few hours. AJ didnt do well either because he had a steering wheel to avoid, and hes taller. We then headed to the gas station across the street to clean up. I got changed, brushed my teeth, and washed my face in the bathroom at the gas station. Then we grabbed some coffee, shouldve gotten gas, and hit the road again.

It didnt take us long to get to Tennessee. We were driving through the mountains, it was pretty astounded, when I realized that there hasnt been an exit in a while.......and we were getting low on gas. So I watched for exits, and watched the range. My car has a feature that shows how far you can go before you run out of gas. It was very low, so we started putting the car into neutral when going down hills just to save some gas. We finally found an exit with a gas station with only 16 miles to empty. That was a close one! So after that, we got back on the interstate, and after a long stretch we saw a road sign that said "tunnel" with some exit number. And of course we wanted to see it! So we took the exit, but couldnt find the tunnel. So we just drove down some back road for a while and stumbled across this awesome old train bridge. We got out of the car and played on that for a while, got on top of the tracks, thought we heard a train coming, and booked it off the bridge.


We went as far as Knoxville in Tennessee then headed east again, toward North Carolina. In our atlas, there is some tourist attraction information and AJ stumbled across the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, which I guess is the biggest mansion in the US. So we called the 1-800 number to get some information on tours, but it was like fifty bucks to get on the grounds, so there was no way we were gonna do that. But we went to Asheville anyways to see if we could get a glimpse of the mansion from another area. We stopped at an art gallery to ask some locals if they knew of a place where we could see it without paying, but they said it was impossible. Until we were leaving. A man stopped us and said that we could see it for free, but it would be risky. Theres an area on the grounds with a fence that we could jump, but if we got caught we could get into trouble. But we decided not to take the risk.

Somewhere in North Carolina we got tired of driving on the Interstate and quickly pulled off onto a back road to see some of the countryside. We drove several miles and saw a couple of cars pulled off the side of the road. Thinking it was a lookout, we too pulled over. The countryside was amazing! The other car belonged to a couple from Nashville, AJ and I talked to the husband for a little bit about our vacationing adventures while his wife stayed in the air conditioning in the car. Then we made lunch, more PB&Js, and hit the interstate again.

We had talked about going to Hilton Head for most of the morning, but were a little unsure since it was so far away, southern South Carolina. Stacee and Steven were vacationing there for fall break and she insisted that if we are in the state that we stop in for a night. Actually, it seemed she was nearly begging me to come. They were staying in a nice condo on the beach, so of course, we talked about decided to stop in. It took a while to get there from Ashville, but we eventually arrived at around 5pm. The weather at Hilton Head was really crappy though, rainy and windy. We had some time to kill once we got there since they were out shopping, so we stopped by the visitors center, got a map, headed to the beach, which was our first stop at the Atlantic on the trip. It was windy and rainy on the beach, not very appeasing. I met a woman named Virginia near the beach though. I was wearing my "Virginia is for Lovers" shirt and she stopped me and said that her name was Virginia. She was nice. We finally met up with Stacee and Steven, went to their condo, and finally got a shower! That was a great shower, I felt so refreshed afterwards.

On our trip, AJ and I had agreed that since we were going to the east coast we had to splurge and get some seafood, go to a local seafood restaurant. So we asked Stacee and Steven if they wanted to have dinner with us. We went to a place called Tapas. Apperently when you go there, you order two things and share it with everyone else. I was really dissappointed in the quantity of the food, they were in appitizer portions. I really wanted a lot to eat considering we had been living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for most of the trip. But the quality was magnificant! It was probably the best food Ive ever tasted, Im not even kidding. I got lobster ravioli and salmon. MMMmmmm, I can still taste it, kind of. It was kind of expensive though. Then on our way back from Tapas we decided to get some beer. Its a good thing South Carolina sells beer on Sundays, we were a little worried about that. We got a couple of six packs and headed back to the condo. We made up a drinking game with UNO cards (I won), smoked cigars on the balcony, ate some cake, then headed to the beach. The beach at night was amazing! It was low tide at that time and it seemed like hundreds of yards of wet beach from the earlier high tide. The rain had stopped and the moon had come out, it looked awesome. So we played on the beach for a while and headed back to the condo. After a while of talking on the balcony about marriage and politics and life in general, we headed to bed. We got to bed a little after midnight. I had to sleep in a tiny bunk bed, but it was better than the car.


Railway bridge

NC skyline

Stop in NC

Fancy McDonalds in Asheville, NC

Making love to a tree in Hilton Head

AJ in the tree.

Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4 for even more and better adventures!!

Fall Break Part I

Well, the trip did happen....and what an adventure!! Last week I had an idea to go on a road trip for fall break, just to go wherever, not even have a plan. The only plan was to make it somewhere along the east coast, it didnt even matter where. And I didnt want to take any major highways, no interstate, just state roads and back roads so we could see more of the countyside. I also didnt want to use a map, just a compass. And I was trying to do this trip as cheaply as possible, only wanting to spend about $100, I figured gas and coffee would be the only expenses. So I asked a couple guys if they wanted to go, everyone was a little hesitant to go since I asked just a few days before fall break, some guys already had plans, some just thought it was a dumb idea. But I had a couple interested, and I eventually got one person to go with me, AJ. AJ is one of my friends from high school and now goes to Purdue and is also in the same fraternity as me.

SATURDAY
So, finally, saturday at around 1pm, AJ made the decision to go on the trip with me. But he was back in Bremen, so he had to drive 2 hours back to Purdue so we could leave, because Bremen isnt exactly on the way to the east coast. So when he got to the house, we packed up a few things. We packed some food: two loaves of bread, peanut butter, jelly, nutrigrain bars, apples, grapes, granola bars, and some instant tea and grape drink mix. We also brought a small tent, two sleeping bags, a blanket, two jugs for water, a bottle of shampoo, some other toiletry knick knacks, and a couple days worth of clothes. And of course, I had to bring my compass. So at around 4:30pm, we finally left.

We started off going south to see where it would take us. Shortly after starting, we decided to fill up the tank, which only required about a half tank. Then we headed west for a while. It was great seeing the countryside of Indiana, passing through some small towns along the way, but it seemed to be taking forever. Our first stop was in Noblesville. The town was having a car show at the city hall so we decided to stop and take a look. While there we saw this huge dog that this guy was walking, I mean, it was nearly as tall as its owner. So I walked up to the guy and asked him what breed of horse it is. He didnt catch on to my joke though. We looked at some cars, took a bathroom break, then hit the road again. Once we reached Indianapolis (on accident, I didnt want to hit any major cities), we decided to change up our plans a little bit. It took us a good 2.5 hours to get to Indy, which should have only taken about 1. So we decided that if we wanted to make it to the coast, we would have to take some interstates. Plus, we wanted to drive through some mountains. So we got out the atlas from my trunk, jumped onto I-74, and headed to Cincinnati. After going west for a while, we hit I-75 to go south through Kentucky and Tennessee. After we got through Cincinnati, it got dark pretty fast, so we just wanted to drive until we got tired, then try and find somewhere to sleep. We stopped along the way at a McDonalds to pee and get some food in us. So we made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ate them in the parking lot next to my car. We got some looks there, people wondering why we dont just eat at McDonalds Im sure. So we hit the road again for a while and wound up somewhere in southern Kentucky, not too far from Tennessee, when we decided to stop for the night. We searched for some camping signs, found one, and headed there. When we got there, we didnt realize that the front office would have been closed already, but it was at about 11pm, so it shouldve been obvious. And the cost to stay there one night was about $30, so we said screw that, and drove off. They did have a pool though, and we really wanted to just go swimming before we left, but didnt. We drove back to the town, found a couple of hotels there, tried to figure out which had the dimmest parking lot, and slept there in the car. It was a Hampton Inn. We got to bed (car) at about 11:30pm.



Noblesville City Hall

Fall Break

Today was officially the start of my fall break. We get off monday and tuesday, but since I dont have class on fridays, I get one extra day. Woot! Technically, my weekend started Thursday night, as usual. But for once, I didnt go to the Neon Cactus. I wasnt in the mood at all. I injured my back earlier this week while working out.....then again the next day while doing squats and leg workouts, pulled it even worse. It hurts horribly right now, both my back and legs, I could barely move this morning. So last night, instead of the Cactus, I just went over to Stacees and hung out with her and her boyfriend Steven. We played a couple of games of beer pong, just to do something, then went to IHOP, the best restaurant ever created. I ended up staying the night there since I had to drive them to the airport in Indy the next morning. So, I did that this morning, it was pretty fun, but I hate driving in that traffic! Airports amaze me, there are so many different types of people, I was constantly looking around at all of the people. I could seriously just spend a day in an airport and watch people. I really didnt do anything the rest of the day, just sat around, took a two hour nap, watched Thelma and Louise, and now here I am blogging. Im in one of those moods where I dont want to be around anyone, just be alone for a night. I got several offers to go places, one to go to the University of Illinois with some guys, one to hang out with some sorority girls, one to go camping, but I just dont feel like being social tonight, just being left alone.
Like I said in an earlier post, I might be going on an adventure this weekend, a road trip, but my plan might be falling through. I wont go into detail about where Im going, I will after the trip if it happens. But if I go, Ill be leaving tomorrow morning with AJ. I have to wait and see if he still wants to go tomorrow, thats why it might fall through, but it doesnt look promising. If I dont go on that roadtrip, I will swing by my grampa Toms house in southern Illinois, he is always glad to have me visit, and I always love visiting him. Im not really sure why I dont want to go home this weekend, everyone else is. Ive been asked by everyone if Im going home, I just say no, but have no reason. Maybe its because home is too familiar.
But for now, I think I might watch another movie before I hit the sack. Have a great weekend y'all! Oh by the way, thanks for all the comments on my artwork!!

Through Painted Deserts

So, I finally finished reading the book Through Painted Deserts by Don Miller. It only took me like 5 weeks to read it! I was a little confused about the book at first, I thought it was going to be a little more spiritual just like Blue Like Jazz, but it was basically just a story about him travelling around the US with his friend Paul in a VW van. But I thought the book was great! Very interesting. There are points in the book that really agree with my simplicity concept. He said that for a few weeks he lived out in the woods with a few other guys, and it was one of the best times of his life. I 100% agree that the simpler things are, when its nothing but you and Gods beautiful painting called the Earth, when you are just out there building relationships, the happier you will be, life will seem like it has a point. I liked this book because I could really relate to thier situation. I believe Don was 21 when these occurances took place. I could definately see myself going on a trip like this, if it werent for this stupid, moneyhungry, college thing. Waste of time, waste of money, so far.

Since I have come back to school, I have gotten everything I have needed, and mostly everything I wanted. I can buy gas for my car now, so I drive a lot. I can buy food from any restaraunt, so I eat out quite a bit. I can afford to go to the bars with my friends every weekend, so I do that. And you know what, its convenient and fun. But Im really not as appreciative as I was this summer when I could afford nothing. I feel like Im taking everything for granted now. I miss the simple life.

The Lower Barn

Well, after talking with Jane in Wisconson, I decided to start posting some of my artwork that I have done. And since I will being doing a ton of work when school starts up, it will be a great opportunity to show off some of the things Im learning.

So this is a drawing of the cabin that we stayed in at Vermont this summer. Im not 100% sure of the history but I know that it currently belongs to John and Lynn Tracy. I know that it used to belong to Lynns father and possibly grandfather? The reason it is called the Lower Barn is because just up the road there is the Upper Barn. Back in the day, they both belonged to the same person, but during hard times he had to sell the Upper Barn, it now belongs to the actress that played the normal cousin on The Munsters. But I drew this picture for John and Lynn as a thank you for letting us stay there for a week. There was artwork all over the cabin, so we framed it and hung it on a bare spot on the wall. Its basically just drawn with charcoal on an 8.5x11" piece of sketching paper, and took me about 2 or 2.5 hours to do. And I know its a crappy, distorted photo but its the best I could do.

Back from Wisconsin

Yep, me and Todd got back to Bremen at about 10:30 last night. The trip back was less then desirable, but managable. We had to make about 4 pit stops because we drank WAY too many liquids, and ran into some horrible traffic in Chicago, we probably lost nearly an hour. But other than that, we were bookin! And listening to Gaffigan...again. Its always a good time when youre listening to Jim Gaffigan though.

The vacation itself was AMAZING. We went to a cabin that Todds grandpa owns on Lake Matonga(sp?). The lake itself was beautiful! The water was crystal clear and just the perfect temperature. The other people there mostly included Todds family, immediate and extended. I cant believe how well I fit in with them, they really accepted me as part of the family. And almost instantly. It was great! I really got along with everyone up there, but mostly his aunt Jane. She was also into art and photography, so it was awesome to see some of her pictures and paintings. It was pretty inspiring. I even taught her a few things on Photoshop, so Im glad I could be of use haha. But it was awesome hanging out with all of them around the campfire every night. We even did mad libs! Those were pretty fun.

But most of the time we were on the lake, either tubing, kneeboarding, conoeing, or paddleboating. Man, tubing really took it out of me, I was dead tired and sore by the end of the day. And that was the first time I had ever kneeboarded. It actually didnt take me very long to catch on. I got the hang of it only on my second attempt. And there is a strap that is supposed to go across your knees to hold you on, but I couldnt get it around my legs, so I was just basically sitting up there, which I guess is pretty good for a beginner. One evening, Todd and I went conoeing and the lake was just beautiful. I cant even describe how awesome it looked, but ill try. The water looked like glass it was so calm, and you could see about 12 feet down because it was so clear, with its tall green plants and some patchy rocks on the bottom. And the sky was perfect with hundreds of different colors and spotty clouds here and there . And you could the "mountains" (they are mountains for Indiana) right along the shore with some fantastic houses. It was pretty awesome.