Im pretty disappointed that elections are over, Im really gonna miss all of those campaign commercials! Yeah right. Im pretty pleased with the turn out, I pretty much expected Obama to win, but wouldnt have been torn if McCain won. Obviously, I voted for Obama. Of course, if you know me, I dont like things to stay the same. Im addicted to change, remember.
Im really surprised at the reactions of people after the elections. I got on Facebook because I knew that people would have some things to say, but everyone just went nuts! It was like a war. People saying things like "the world is gonna be run into the ground", "heres to the new socialist republic", and my favorite "F*** Obama....Christian nation my a**, America is full of ignorant people." I left a comment to that guy, I was pretty upset about this comment, I probably shouldnt have but I said, "....and youre an ignorant Christian." As a Christian, I was offended by this comment. How you can be so judgemental to me? I really wish I hadnt made the comment though, because I now realize that I was also being judgemental.
But anyways, we'll see how Obama does with this whole President thing. Im pretty excited to see some things change, but hopefully he does it responsibly and with our best interests in mind.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Eventful Night
So tonight was interesting and full of a variety of emotions. It started a couple of hours before chapter, maybe around 6 or 7pm. My friend Cam, a brother in the house, came up to me and told me that our Housing Director was coming to the house tonight to inform four of us that we are being evicted from the fraternity. This was a little upsetting, but I wasnt going to make a big deal about it since I didnt have all of the facts, and since I was proven innocent by the brothers, I figured I wouldnt be getting evicted also. So after chapter (thats our house meeting every Monday where we do fraternity business), we had a little discussion with Ty, the house director. He came straight out and said that all four of us were getting evicted next semester. Like I said earlier, I was proven innocent by the chapter, so had no punishments according to the brothers due to the fact that it wasnt my alcohol that was found in our room. But, since I knew it was in the room, the housing corporation decided to evict me, which is separate from the fraternity. I was just a tad upset about this, and told Ty what I thought. The whole thing was sketchy to begin with, it seemed like they were targeting certain people, mainly the people I pledged with. So I told him how shady everthing seemed, told him we deserved a second chance, and told him that because of this about a quarter of the house might be quitting.
So after our conversation, I was walking upstairs to my room when about three or four guys stopped me and asked about our conversation. I explained, and they were also upset with the decision. So they gathered as many guys as they could, and headed to the kitchen to have a huge discussion with Ty. This was pretty amazing. There were about 25 or 30 guys in there defending us four, we all told Ty how we disapproved of him, the corporation, and the Board of Trustees, telling him that they are more concerned with punishing us than helping us, which in turn is hurting the house. This whole conversation went on for a couple of hours, just Ty against all of us. It was pretty amazing how everyone came together to give him our opinions, and we were really blunt about it, telling him that his decisions and leadership skills are disgusting. We have had problems with this guy in the past, hes really unethical and unprofessional, but this was the breaking point. We eventually told him we wanted to get rid of him as housing director, that he wasnt helping the house at all, only ruining it. Im still not sure if I am still getting evicted though, either way it doesnt bother me, I had half of the brothers tell me I could stay in their room next semester. Shoot, I wouldnt have to pay rent that way.
So after that, Im sitting in my room talking to some guys about the events of the night when I hear some yelling and running coming from the staircase. Earlier in the day, some guys on the first floor had set up a fort in their hallway made of mattresses and challenged the second and third floor to a battle. This was the battle, and it was freakin awesome! We started out using brooms and frebreeze or axe spray as our ammo. The guys on the second floor (my floor) would charge and all of this smelly stuff would just cloud up the whole hallway. I was using a stick of deodorant as my defense, wiping it on anyone near me. Then I got my airhorn as a defense. And, eventually, someone got the idea to use the fire extinguisher, which, looking back, was a horrible idea. That thing left the biggest mess, white powder was everywhere, I mean, everywhere! Then everyone was on the verge of throwing up because of the white cloud of dust filling the air. We all ran outside and were coughing and spitting trying to get the taste out of our mouths. The dust cloud even made its way up to the third floor. We eventually settled down just before 1am. Im not sure who cleaned up the mess, but it was huge. Someone even threw a pumpkin. Yes, I know, we are wild and irresponsible, but we had so much fun!
So after our conversation, I was walking upstairs to my room when about three or four guys stopped me and asked about our conversation. I explained, and they were also upset with the decision. So they gathered as many guys as they could, and headed to the kitchen to have a huge discussion with Ty. This was pretty amazing. There were about 25 or 30 guys in there defending us four, we all told Ty how we disapproved of him, the corporation, and the Board of Trustees, telling him that they are more concerned with punishing us than helping us, which in turn is hurting the house. This whole conversation went on for a couple of hours, just Ty against all of us. It was pretty amazing how everyone came together to give him our opinions, and we were really blunt about it, telling him that his decisions and leadership skills are disgusting. We have had problems with this guy in the past, hes really unethical and unprofessional, but this was the breaking point. We eventually told him we wanted to get rid of him as housing director, that he wasnt helping the house at all, only ruining it. Im still not sure if I am still getting evicted though, either way it doesnt bother me, I had half of the brothers tell me I could stay in their room next semester. Shoot, I wouldnt have to pay rent that way.
So after that, Im sitting in my room talking to some guys about the events of the night when I hear some yelling and running coming from the staircase. Earlier in the day, some guys on the first floor had set up a fort in their hallway made of mattresses and challenged the second and third floor to a battle. This was the battle, and it was freakin awesome! We started out using brooms and frebreeze or axe spray as our ammo. The guys on the second floor (my floor) would charge and all of this smelly stuff would just cloud up the whole hallway. I was using a stick of deodorant as my defense, wiping it on anyone near me. Then I got my airhorn as a defense. And, eventually, someone got the idea to use the fire extinguisher, which, looking back, was a horrible idea. That thing left the biggest mess, white powder was everywhere, I mean, everywhere! Then everyone was on the verge of throwing up because of the white cloud of dust filling the air. We all ran outside and were coughing and spitting trying to get the taste out of our mouths. The dust cloud even made its way up to the third floor. We eventually settled down just before 1am. Im not sure who cleaned up the mess, but it was huge. Someone even threw a pumpkin. Yes, I know, we are wild and irresponsible, but we had so much fun!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Check These Out!
These are some HILARIOUS videos I found. Today at church, we watched the second video, I was laughing SOO hard! Enjoy!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Random Thoughts and Events
You know how movies have dramatic music in the background of each scene, and there are different types of music for each type of scene. During tense moments, theres the dramatic, high beat music. During love scenes or moments of happiness, there are the soothing violins and flutes and whatnot. During sad parts, the music makes you feel emotional.
Wouldnt it be cool if our lives had that music playing? Im sitting here in my room, just got up from a nap, and there is this music playing somewhere, Ive been hearing for like the last half hour. I looked all around to see if it was from the speakers, from a computer, from the house, but couldnt find the source. Its really faint, but it sounds beautiful. I thought for a moment that I might be going crazy (even more so than I already am). But I think I found the source, Im not 100% sure, but I think its the Purdue band, they are practicing down the road, I can hear some drums every now and then. But the music Im hearing sounds way too love storyish for a school band to play. But that got me thinking about having music to the events of our lives. I think that would be awesome, it would add to the emotion, but probably get annoying after a while.
My week hasnt gotten any better. Just as I predicted, it got worse. I might be getting evicted from ATO now. Its not because of the rent issue though. A couple weeks ago, while we were on fall break, some guys on the Board of Trustees decided to do room checks for alcohol. There was some beer in our fridge left over from tailgating with my roommates parents, and they found it. There were quite a few others that got caught too. We were sent to J-board (judicial board), which decides punishments for breaking the rules, and I was found innocent due to the fact that it wasnt my alcohol or refridgerator. But this week, I recieved an email that said that I still might be getting evicted because of the incident, although I was found innocent. It doesnt make sense, and its kind of a harsh punishment for my first house offense. But I dont really care if I get evicted, I will probably just turn in my pin (quit the fraternity), and find an apartment, it costs too much to live in a fraternity anyways. There are quite a few guys that are fed up with the drama around the house and are considering quitting also. Im actually going to look at a house off campus with some guys this weekend for next year. So, we'll see what happens with this.
But for now, Im just gonna listen to my lifes background music.
Wouldnt it be cool if our lives had that music playing? Im sitting here in my room, just got up from a nap, and there is this music playing somewhere, Ive been hearing for like the last half hour. I looked all around to see if it was from the speakers, from a computer, from the house, but couldnt find the source. Its really faint, but it sounds beautiful. I thought for a moment that I might be going crazy (even more so than I already am). But I think I found the source, Im not 100% sure, but I think its the Purdue band, they are practicing down the road, I can hear some drums every now and then. But the music Im hearing sounds way too love storyish for a school band to play. But that got me thinking about having music to the events of our lives. I think that would be awesome, it would add to the emotion, but probably get annoying after a while.
My week hasnt gotten any better. Just as I predicted, it got worse. I might be getting evicted from ATO now. Its not because of the rent issue though. A couple weeks ago, while we were on fall break, some guys on the Board of Trustees decided to do room checks for alcohol. There was some beer in our fridge left over from tailgating with my roommates parents, and they found it. There were quite a few others that got caught too. We were sent to J-board (judicial board), which decides punishments for breaking the rules, and I was found innocent due to the fact that it wasnt my alcohol or refridgerator. But this week, I recieved an email that said that I still might be getting evicted because of the incident, although I was found innocent. It doesnt make sense, and its kind of a harsh punishment for my first house offense. But I dont really care if I get evicted, I will probably just turn in my pin (quit the fraternity), and find an apartment, it costs too much to live in a fraternity anyways. There are quite a few guys that are fed up with the drama around the house and are considering quitting also. Im actually going to look at a house off campus with some guys this weekend for next year. So, we'll see what happens with this.
But for now, Im just gonna listen to my lifes background music.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Bad Day
I am having a bad day so far. First of all, I couldnt sleep last night, I woke up at about 4am because my bladder was gonna explode, and when I got back from the bathroom, I could not fall back asleep. I layed there for about two hours. My mind was just going crazy, I kept thinking about EVERYTHING. Then I got up this morning in just a blah mood. Lunch was blah also.
I went to my ceramics class, my only class of the day, hoping to brighten my spirits. The one girl that is in my class that I sorta had a crush on, well I asked her to be my date for a party we are throwing this saturday. I think her and her boyfriend split, but really it doesnt matter. This party on saturday is sort of like a high school dance type thing with food, dancing, hayride, but theres alcohol there, but you need to take a date. So I asked her a couple of days ago with no response, then asked again today and she said she couldnt go. I didnt get an excuse, but I dont really care what it was, she probably just didnt have enough time to make one up. She is the third girl to turn me down for this party. That didnt help my already bad mood. Then, we had homework due for this class, some sketches of an absract object based on a poem or song. So I did the sketches based on the poem I wrote, but didnt bring the poem to class. Needless to say, I got chewed out, and she didnt believe me that I actually wrote a poem, she thought I was making that up. On top of that, we are working on a hand made from clay, it has to be as realistic as possible, and I spent about an hour on just the thumb today. I got it attached, was in a bad mood for how difficult this hand had been to build, and...........it fell off the stand. The thumb broke, the hand became deformed, I had a few choice words, nearly grabbed the whole thing and threw it against the wall, but decided not to.
So that has been my crappy day so far. I just wanted to walk out in front of a car on my way back from class. Actually, the whole week has been kind of a rollercoaster. Im ready for it to be over. Except, it will only get worse since I have to be bartender for our Halloween party on Friday. So for the rest of the day, I might drive to Rochester to put some money in my account, I still havent paid rent for this semester. But once I do, I will once again be flat broke. Fun time is over.
I went to my ceramics class, my only class of the day, hoping to brighten my spirits. The one girl that is in my class that I sorta had a crush on, well I asked her to be my date for a party we are throwing this saturday. I think her and her boyfriend split, but really it doesnt matter. This party on saturday is sort of like a high school dance type thing with food, dancing, hayride, but theres alcohol there, but you need to take a date. So I asked her a couple of days ago with no response, then asked again today and she said she couldnt go. I didnt get an excuse, but I dont really care what it was, she probably just didnt have enough time to make one up. She is the third girl to turn me down for this party. That didnt help my already bad mood. Then, we had homework due for this class, some sketches of an absract object based on a poem or song. So I did the sketches based on the poem I wrote, but didnt bring the poem to class. Needless to say, I got chewed out, and she didnt believe me that I actually wrote a poem, she thought I was making that up. On top of that, we are working on a hand made from clay, it has to be as realistic as possible, and I spent about an hour on just the thumb today. I got it attached, was in a bad mood for how difficult this hand had been to build, and...........it fell off the stand. The thumb broke, the hand became deformed, I had a few choice words, nearly grabbed the whole thing and threw it against the wall, but decided not to.
So that has been my crappy day so far. I just wanted to walk out in front of a car on my way back from class. Actually, the whole week has been kind of a rollercoaster. Im ready for it to be over. Except, it will only get worse since I have to be bartender for our Halloween party on Friday. So for the rest of the day, I might drive to Rochester to put some money in my account, I still havent paid rent for this semester. But once I do, I will once again be flat broke. Fun time is over.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Today is Alive
Yesterday is dead
It occurred at midnight last night
Should we mourn its death?
Should we keep it in our memory
Going over its events
Either painful or joyful
Living in the past?
Or should we move on?
What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow is unseen
Like a being that doesnt exist.
Tomorrow has no thought
No feeling, no purpose
It doesnt mean anything.
Tomorrow is subjective.
Should we embrace this day
As its moments unfolds?
Never again will we experience
The feeling of this instant.
Have we forgotten
The worthlessness of yesterday and tomorrow?
Today is objective
Today we feel
We think, we have purpose
Today is Alive.
It occurred at midnight last night
Should we mourn its death?
Should we keep it in our memory
Going over its events
Either painful or joyful
Living in the past?
Or should we move on?
What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow is unseen
Like a being that doesnt exist.
Tomorrow has no thought
No feeling, no purpose
It doesnt mean anything.
Tomorrow is subjective.
Should we embrace this day
As its moments unfolds?
Never again will we experience
The feeling of this instant.
Have we forgotten
The worthlessness of yesterday and tomorrow?
Today is objective
Today we feel
We think, we have purpose
Today is Alive.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Girl on the Trek
So, I have seen this girl about three times now, actually even twice today, and she makes me smile. There is a girl that rides a white Trek, just about like the one Todd rides, and everytime I see her, she just looks like she is really enjoying herself. Shes a fairly attractive girl, on a Trek, and is always smiling while riding. That makes me smile. I hope to see her around more, although, if she werent on her bike, I probably wouldnt recognize her.
Monday, October 20, 2008
People and our Things
I am finding out more and more that people love their things, their possesions, their trinkets, their stuff. And it seems like the more things they have, the more they want. That just doesnt make any sense. And some people just wont let others be near their things. But then there are others who realize that their stuff is just that, stuff. Just this weekend I ran into a couple of cases of both. The first incident was that one of my friends let me borrow his car for the weekend. This was a very generous gesture, considering he has a pretty nice car and I would be driving a couple hundred miles the whole weekend. When I asked to borrow it, he didnt even put up a fight, basically a quick "yeah sure" and some basic rules like "dont wreck it." But then I ran into the other people. Someone wouldnt let my dad borrow his truck for a day to tow our Samurai. He said that he didnt want anything to happen to it, if something where to happen, it would rather be himself that did it. Thats such bullcrap. Not to mention an insult to my dad. Its just a truck.
Then there are the people that have it all but its still not enough. I hate to pick on people, but I have to give an example: A family friend has three motorcycles, two of which are his wifes(the 650 didnt have enough power), three offroaders, a boat, four vehicles, a hot tub, a swimming pool, and many other little trinkets, and the other day he was talking about getting another smaller trailer, aside from the long one, in case he only wanted to haul one vehicle instead of two. When is enough....enough? Holy cow, how can you own so much and still not be content? I have another friend (hes gonna read this and hate me) that has four ipods, just got a shuffle recently because the other three were too big, couldnt work out with them. I mean, Im not saying that Im perfect in this area either, I too like having "things" (luckily I can never afford to own more), I just have to remind myself that things, take my car for example, is just a bunch of metal and plastic and rubber strategically placed together to produce a swift mode of transportation.
While AJ and I were on our trip, while watching the sun rise we were next to this big, beautiful house on the beach and I made the sarcastic comment that their pool, hot tub, awesome veiw, boat, second story, and what was probably their second house probably made these people really happy. He got a kick out of that. Are our things making us happy? Maybe for a couple of days. I know that I get a thrill out of a brand new possesion. But does it make us happy to own more, and more, and more?
Todd and I had a conversation earlier this summer that stuck with me about people and their possesions. It was a little far fetched, but it would be awesome if it were true. He wondered why we couldnt all just share our possesions, he asked why every single family needs their own lawn mower, why not just have one mower for the whole block that we could use when we needed? During TNT(Thursday Night Thing) at Campus House Church, we are studying Acts in the Bible, and it says that the early church did this. They would share their possesions, their possesions didnt belong to one single person, but a whole group of people.
I really dont have a solution to all this, I just wish we wouldnt focus so much on our possesions. It seems like a waste of time.
Then there are the people that have it all but its still not enough. I hate to pick on people, but I have to give an example: A family friend has three motorcycles, two of which are his wifes(the 650 didnt have enough power), three offroaders, a boat, four vehicles, a hot tub, a swimming pool, and many other little trinkets, and the other day he was talking about getting another smaller trailer, aside from the long one, in case he only wanted to haul one vehicle instead of two. When is enough....enough? Holy cow, how can you own so much and still not be content? I have another friend (hes gonna read this and hate me) that has four ipods, just got a shuffle recently because the other three were too big, couldnt work out with them. I mean, Im not saying that Im perfect in this area either, I too like having "things" (luckily I can never afford to own more), I just have to remind myself that things, take my car for example, is just a bunch of metal and plastic and rubber strategically placed together to produce a swift mode of transportation.
While AJ and I were on our trip, while watching the sun rise we were next to this big, beautiful house on the beach and I made the sarcastic comment that their pool, hot tub, awesome veiw, boat, second story, and what was probably their second house probably made these people really happy. He got a kick out of that. Are our things making us happy? Maybe for a couple of days. I know that I get a thrill out of a brand new possesion. But does it make us happy to own more, and more, and more?
Todd and I had a conversation earlier this summer that stuck with me about people and their possesions. It was a little far fetched, but it would be awesome if it were true. He wondered why we couldnt all just share our possesions, he asked why every single family needs their own lawn mower, why not just have one mower for the whole block that we could use when we needed? During TNT(Thursday Night Thing) at Campus House Church, we are studying Acts in the Bible, and it says that the early church did this. They would share their possesions, their possesions didnt belong to one single person, but a whole group of people.
I really dont have a solution to all this, I just wish we wouldnt focus so much on our possesions. It seems like a waste of time.
Friday, October 17, 2008
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
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
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!!
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