6/29/08 PA, WV and Ohio

Chapter 4. In which we take an accidental detour.
Alright, so for some reason I woke up at 6AM in PA. That reason was mostly Ria's elbow, but we will leave that issue for now. I wrote a note for the fabulous Trinket, and drew her a picture. Dave slept, and Ria tried to. When everybody woke up we had scones, and Zen, and Ria and I played paparazzi with Dave.

Dave gave us lots of advice as to where to go and recommended Wisconsin & Minnesota. He told us about how he did the American Gods tour on his road trip and gave us a bunch of places to see in Wisconsin. I didn't want to leave Dave's and I almost cried. I left because I was thinking about all the other people I was going to see. Dave rocked.
So since I was the most awake at the time I drove to start out with. I was mid Pennsylvania when Tomtom's battery died. Apparently I had plugged the wrong charger in so it never charged. But at the time Ria was sleeping, and I was mildly panicked, and decided that I should pull over at the next major city I could find. The next exit was Hershey PA. We had not planned to go there. However when in Hershey you might as well stop at the attractions. I figured out what was wrong with Tomtom after looking at the instructions, Ria woke up and we went into chocolate world

Chocolate world has a tour that you get free chocolate after. The ride has random singing cows.
It was interesting. Had lunch and a really good chocolate milkshake there. On the way out of there we stopped at the Hershey outlets so Ria could buy American Gods. As we were turning out of the outlets Ria was saying something to me about the tomtom and I was sputtering back at her because for days she was saying how she didn't trust tomtom, and now she was singing it's praises. Mid-muttering I realized that Ria was eating a very melty reese's so it went something like this "....and now you're friend's with tomtom rar rar hmmpm ....ooooh Melty!" It was rather amusing.
We then traveled through the rest of PA, taking turns reading American Gods out loud. There are cool little tunnels through the mountains in PA .
We briefly forayed into West Virginia at which point Ria freaked a little "Liz what are we doing in West Virginia. I don't trust tomtom get the map"-Ria "
Me after looking at the map "It's okay. You know ho West virginia has little pointy things at the top of it? We're in one of those"

Ria drove into Ohio and I met Ashley, Ria's former roommate. We went to Commfest in Columbus. After learning that Columbus has the second largest gay community in the US, we went to a gay bar called union, and heard part of showtunes night. Unfortunately the wait for food was to long so we went elsewhere. On the drive there, Ria started speaking about the fireworks she was seeing, while i saw nothing out the window Ria"look at the fireworks they are blue and green a purple and gorgeous" (me seeing nothing) "Are you sure you're not hallucinating?" Ria "no really I saw them, and we did see bursts of light in the distance. Columbus reminded me of upstate NY somehow.
Ashley's was a fabulous, and I slept well. that's it for tonight. On to Meg's in Michigan, but first new camera batteries because that is why there are no Ohio pictures.

6/28/08 CT, New York & Pennsylvania

Chapter 3: In which Liz gets lost in the Met, and the and the ladies find Mirth (Complete with Business Card)
After Apples to Apples late into the night I slept in my own bed and Ria slept at Jen & Cole's. I woke up ready to go and we had a nice part of the morning at with Jen, Cole and Dave M., in which everybody was sleepy and then had waffles.
Then we ventured off to NYC. I drove much of the way but Ria is officially our city driver. I make good time on highways, and am comfortable in small cities and towns, but not big confusing or unfamiliar cities. We parked near Greenwich village. We went to Bluestockings, which had a cafe that consisted of drinks, and a few breads and cookies. I was thinking cafe meant a little more, but that was alright. From there we had public transportation adventures getting to the Met. (Technically that picture is from later in the day, but whatever.)
I had never been to the met before.

"Tomtom does not really help you inside the Met."- Me
It is unfortunate that this is true, because the Met is kind of insane, and easy to get lost. in 19th & 20th century European Paintings I wandered away from Ria and got lost. I called her from a room with vaguely impressionistic and colorful paintings. I apparently got Ria yelled at by a Met guard for using her cell phone. However I consider losing people in the Met and emergency which warrants cell phone usage. I then found Monet, and Ria found me so all was well.
I got us yelled at at least one more time because I used flash photography to capture the bodhisattva, after which Ria showed me how to turn the flash off on my camera.
Later in the trip we got both got lost in Greek and Roman art and I thoroughly considered drinking my coke so I would get yelled at and hopefully escorted out of the building by the Met guards. But we found our way out on our own.

After the Met we walked through Central Park in which we learned exactly what the effect of Liz watching too much Law and Order & Law & order SVU is.
"Look there's a couple of tourist's sleeping on the benches.........Unless they're dead."-me
Ria just looked at me.
We then went by the theater in the park to the castle. It rained. It was a hot day in the city, so rain was not the worst thing. Ria was thrilled by the weather. I was "meh"

The part that made me happy was going to Max Brenner's where we got chocolate for our soon to be host and ourselves. I also had the Chocolate Granita which was heavenly and we chatted up the server who was very fine looking man and, of course, trying to be an actor (sorry didn't think to get a picture) .
Sadly we did not get to see Gina as she was checking in with sick relatives, but I wish her family well.
It was on the road again after that. Ria learned to trust Tomtom a little better after it got us out of the city. We headed through Jersey, and around 9ish realized we hadn't eaten much in the way of real food since the waffles. We had trouble finding an open restaurant where we could grab something quick, so we headed for the A&P where I got Hummus and carrot chips which was one of the best dinners I have had in a while.

Then we got to DAVE'S!!!!!!!
I love Dave O., and if I had been smart I would have got a picture of him in the outfit he was in when we arrived, but I was too busy hugging him. He had come from the totally normal event, and was wearing a blue and purple headscarf with horns a utilikilt, without glasses, and with a great big Dave smile.
We chatted late into the night, I made him a tour poster, we chatted more then curled up to sleep.
I woke up earliest, and drew a picture and note for Trinket while waiting. (Trinket is Dave's very pretty girlfriend who I have yet to meet, but have read and heard lots about). VERY VERY soon Dave will be living with her as today Dave is moving out of the apartment we stayed in. (We have good timing) We were going to help him move, but he will not get the Uhaul until after it will be time for us to leave. So instead we hope to treat him to a fabulous breakfast.

Next up Ohio.

6/27/08: Worcester (meet Joie)

Chapter 2: In which we meet our traveling companion and toast our joys with friends in Worcester.
We had lunch at the Buddha Hut. It was amazing. fake meat with real textures made from soy stuff. Lots of friends of Ria's were there, including Melissa who I've become friends with over the years. Also Jonah and Erica stopped by, which was a nice treat.
After lunch was kind of a blur of activities.
We did eventually pick up the rental car
We decided to name her Joie (pronounced like joey). She seems like a good little car.

We also eventually made it over to Jen's for dinner, and I brought presents for Bean.

In case you didn't know or guess Bean is inside Jen, and will be making his or her debut sometime this July.
We had a great dinner along with Jen and Cole and Bean, Chad and Dave M stopped by, and we all stayed uplate playing apples to apples, and I got a few more pictures along the way.

Tommorow we head for NYC
Meantime i need to catch some sleep.

6/26/08& 6/27/08 (morning): Quincy & Boston

Chapter 1: In which Ria comes to Massachusetts and Liz knits.
Last night I slept in Quincy at my friend James' house. Becky, James and I all had to get up early but we stayed up late chatting anyway. I was sleepy so I knitting while I chatted, so i could stay focused.

I slept there because Ria's plane got in at 7AM and trying to fight through Boston traffic that early in the morning is crazy. I think we finally got to the airport at 7:35ish? James came with me because he wasn't certain he would get to see Ria otherwise. Ria was thrilled to be in Mass., and amazed because we have humidity. I don't find humidity all that amazing, but whatever.
Ria was more amazed to be back in the land of Dunkin Donuts, so we had to make a stop.
We then got back to my apartment at which point Ria after checking things online decided to take advantage of my futon, because 40 minutes sleep on a red eye does not quite cut it.
We will be off to lunch at the buddha hut for noon.
More adventures in Worcester await.

My camera say that I have to download my camera drivers onto whatever computer I use, so I may not be able to post pictures as frequently on the road, but I certainly will try. Ria (the digital editor) is more hopeful and says I should be fine.

cross country trip itenerary

For those of you who have seen my livejournal it's a repeat, but here is the current itinerary

June 26 Thurs Liz finishes things on her list & sleeps in quincy on James’ couch Ria flies out of Monterey 8pm
June 27th Fri Ria arrives in boston 7am, We hang around MA with lots o people including Dave M.
June 28 sat. Visit NYC bookstores (hopefully) with Gina. Drive to PA to meet Dave O!
June 29 sun Love life, Drive all day. Sleep in Columbus Ohio at Ria’s old roommate’s place
June 30 mon Spend day in Ann arbor. Love being with Meg, meet Dre Sleep in Ann arbor
July 1 tues See Chicago See UU church FLW built in oak park. Sleep west of there
July 2 wed Drive all day sleep in either IA, SD MN or WI (I think we will go the IA route)
July 3 thurs visit Badlands national park enjoy views sleep either in badlands or near Mt rushmore
July 4 fri visit crazy horse monument & mount rushmore if we haven’t already. (wear flag shirt) sleep near cody Wyoming.
July 5 sat pick up curt in Cody Wy, go to Yellowstone national park
July 6 Sun enjoy rest of Yellowstone aim for Missoula MT
July 7 Mon Arrive in Seattle WA visit Decordova and Jake meet Darya
July 8 Tues drop off curt seattle day 2 feel that seattle vibe, hug Decordova and Jake LOTS
July 9 Wed sleep near Ashland Oregon go to the green show at the Oregon Shakespeare festival.
July 10 Thur Arrive in san Francisco ca, Liz Spends the night Ria?
July 11 Fri Ria returns car in Monterey, Liz after a day touring the city goes flies from San Fran to Syracuse. Ria rests.
July 12 Sat Liz flies into a family reunion in Syracuse.


SO the thrilling and exciting thing is I finished up at work and I finished up my class so I am in full on vacation mode. My to do list is getting smaller, and I actually feel like all the planning is working out. I'm mostly packed. Now all I have to do tomorrow is clean up around my apartment and do little things like burn my 12th or 13th CD, figure out how to use my camera, program my GPS, look up more places to visit in Chicago, and get extra maps from AAA. It should be an interesting day.
For now I'm off to look up internet cafes so I will be able to update this when I'm on the road.

A brief introduction

It was December....
I think it was 2006. I ended up taking a road trip all around New York State, traveling to a whole bunch of cities, and mainly staying with friends, with one hotel stay in Oneonta which is where I went to college. Because my friends were so graciously putting me up for the night I made them tour posters for what i referred to as the "Liz is Not a Rock Star NY State Tour" posters. One of the posters was based on an Ani DiFranco album cover, another involved Zebra stripes for certain college friend who is crazy about animal prints (among other things) and there were multiple others tailored to the person/family I was making them for. (I like to draw, and I like to draw things for people even more.)

Thus with the creation of the posters, and the naming of the adventure- Not A Rock A Star tours began.

If you tour like a rock star you stay in hotels and spend money like crazy and miss out on little things.
I prefer to tour like me, and like many other people I know. I like to stay with friends or family or camp out. I like to listen to mix CDs or the local radio. I like to take the time to appreciate the people, and see the sights that seem most worth it to me. It's about individual taste. While I'm sure there are times when my individual taste meshes nicely with the culture at large (I have been referred to as a pop culture princess, and seriously contemplated forming a team with a friend for VH1's world series of pop culture), I also know there are times when it doesn't. So as much as my friend Jeff thinks otherwise, Liz is Not a Rock Star, and so her tours get a whole other name and flavor to them.

This blog is a document of those travels, broken up into little tour stops along the way.