Day 1 - From Brooklyn to Cleveland

Hitting the road at 9:45...only 2-and-a-half hours behind schedule. Looks like Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is out for

today, but we’ll plan for tomorrow morning. Hopefully we make it to Cleveland for the basketball game in time. Looking very forward to watching LeBron play!

The whole family came over last night to say goodbye, and brought with them an amazing spread of home-cooked foods. Including some faaaantastic fried chicken cooked by cousin Shaena for the ride. And since it’s now 9:55AM, it’s high-time to have a piece.

Already got a little lost, missed the entrance to the Holland tunnel. Probably because we’re a little retarded. This bodes well for our chances of finding jobs in San Francisco. Good times. It’s now 10:12. NYC won’t let us go!

Wow, Shaena makes some excellent fried chicken.

10:51AM. On 280 heading for points west.

Something to note: when driving large vehicles / trucks, you can only take certa

in routes through NYC - parkways, tunnels, bridges. Who knew? Well, apparently a friend of ours was smart enough. Very key in getting prepared. Thanks for the tip! (Can’t provide name because we forgot who it was, and we think it was mentioned while very drunk during the going away party on Saturday night or while hungover the next day. Either way.)

Speaking of friends, we were given mix CDs that we played almost immediately after entering the truck this morning. It set the mood and excitement for the beginning of the long journey ahead. The album art caused some pretty loud chuckles. Thanks Beldemily!

If someone like say, Dave, had made us a road mix, it would no doubt have contained 1 of his 2 favorite songs in recent memory:

Summer Girls by LFO (“I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch...”)

Anything from the Mamma Mia soundtrack

This is not a joke. Just funny!

While we were peeing in the woods at a non-bathroom-having rest stop, Rachel proclaims “fertilize the trees!”

“I don’t think it does”

“Yes it does. Why do you think...” and the conversation went on.

While considering that poop does, in fact, serve as fertilizer, I conceded I wasn’t sure and that she is probably right. This is the talk of young lovers.

~Welcome to New Jersey~

12:37PM. As the very common practice of paying tolls on America’s highways catches us completely by surprise, we pull up to the toll collector - me without pants - and find out we have to turn around and go back to a gas station to get the needed $5.

Oh yeah, was washing some grapes to feed to Rachel while she drives, and I had the brilliant idea of pouring water directly into the container to rinse them off. Of course, the thing had holes on the very bottom, and my pants got pretty soaked. They’re now drying, along with Rachel’s sweater, on the dashboard in the sun.

Ok she got the cash, and we’re back on the road! Very valuable lesson learned here: traveling in boxer shorts - and more importantly, without pants - is awesome. Certainly should have thought of this earlier in life.

And thus begins our trek across the State of Pennsylvania.

12:53PM. Right lane closed, so we have to merge left. The truck behind won’t let us in the lane and honks at us!

“Don’t fucking honk at me,” Rachel mumbles.

That’s my baby! She’s a trucker now, too. And she ain’t taking shit.

1:39PM. Drechel just belted out an impressive duo of “I’m With You” by Avril Lavigne.

7:47PM. Late for a 7PM Cavaliers-Spurs game but rushing to make it for the 4th quarter. Then a Cleveland disc jockey tells us that LeBron James isn’t playing. Unfortunate turn of events, or is it?

8:30PM. Apparently you cannot make a left-hand turn in Cleveland, but after some complex navigation, involving mostly right-hand turns, we made it work.

9:00PM. Check into room, order wonderful room service and treat ourselves to an hour of combined hot tub / pool / sauna time. So really, this turned into quite a nice night.