Back in the Northeast

Picking up where we left off: after Chicago we headed to classmate Stacey Bishop’s house in Reading, Ohio (just outside Cincinnati). When we arrived, we did some much needed laundry and chowed down on some Skyline Chili Coneys and Mrs. Bishop’s family recipe barbecue. After dinner we headed to the “Festival in Sycamore,” where Stacey’s uncle – who’s a local town trustee – gave each of us a few free drink tickets and we got to see the Guess Who! After a few beers and some dancing, we were about ready to head back to the house and hit the sack. In the morning, we ate some pancakes and goetta (some kind of delicious Cincinnati-German sausage stuff) and were on our way.

We were greeted by Stacey with her mom and brother

Build your own Coneys!

I friggin' love chili dogs

The guess who would go on later that night

Matt cut a few rugs

Out front with the Bishops

After Stacey’s, we headed to John Fleming’s home outside Rochester, New York to hit our last state of the trip. We chilled in John’s backyard while his parents made us a whole mess of food, and a few of us spent some time cooling down in the pool after dinner. After the pool, we shared a few growlers from some local craft brewery before heading to bed. This late into the trip: we’re all starting to get a little tired, so our bedtime’s been getting earlier and earlier.

The Flemings'!

Ribs!

Tucker is the biggest golden retriever I've ever seen

Mr. Fleming made these jalapeno-cheese-bacon wrapped things. They were pretty much awesome.

Us with John. Also, beer.

From John’s, we only had to drive about an hour to the next classmate, Sean Doran’s house, east of Rochester. We happened to arrive on Sean’s first day of work, so during the day we hung out with Sean’s family and spent some time at Lake Ontario until Sean got home from work. When Sean got back, we caught up and shot some pool, and then ate and awesome pulled-pork dinner. After, we played some Cranium and watched some Netflix with Sean and his sister, Mary.

Lake Ontario

Mr. Professional getting home from his first day of work

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Tupper!

Right before Kyle and I beat the pants off everybody at Cranium

With the Dorans. Sean had work early, so we used a poster of him instead.

So now there's just two days and two classmates left. Check back in a few for JC and Andrew's stops, before we head back to Webb and finish our trip.

Until then,
-Steve

...and Everything In Between

Alright, time to get back up to date. Since leaving Seattle, we’ve quickly made our way across the country, and are now en route to our next classmate’s house in Ohio.

After Seattle, we grabbed breakfast at some diner Allan remembered from when he was a kid, and then stopped off at the Wild Horse Monument in Central Washington. After driving a ways, we stopped in Butte, Montana to grab dinner at a sports bar built in an old bank, and camped under the most star-filled sky we’ve seen all trip. The next day, we drove through Yellowstone National Park to look at Buffalo, wade in some stream, and watch old faithful erupt. Then it was just a scenic drive through Wyoming until we reached the Wyo Rodeo in Sheridan, where we got our first introduction to weird Midwestern folks before stopping at a rest stop for the night.

We stopped to check out the view

Wild Horse Memorial

Metals Bar and Grill... Formerly Metals Bank and Trust

We don't have this many stars on Long Island

Buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Checking out a river thing.

Ol' Faithful went off right on time

"I mixed up my Viagra and my Rogaine and now my hair wont stay down!" Rodeo clowns are weird.

Yup.

The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed to Mount Rushmore to see a few presidents, and then to the Fort Hayes Chuckwagon for 99¢ all-you-can-eat pancakes (we couldn’t believe it either). After stopping at a Cabela’s to empty our tanks, we drove through the night into Chicago. Taking the Metra into Union Station, we got to see the Sears Tower (which I guess is actually the Willis Tower now, but that’s just lame), and walk across the Chicago River. We grabbed some deep-dish pizza before walking all over Grant Park, and then taking the train south to check out the University of Chicago, Frank Loyd Wright’s Robie House, and some col church we found. Then we headed to overnight parking at O’Hare airport because that’s the only place in Chicago that would let us park an RV for the night.

Someone made a big statue!

Matt tried on a hat!

Unlimited refills on pancakes and coffee!? How can they even do that!?

Outside the Chuckwagon

I don't care what anybody says I'm calling it the Sears Tower

Deep Dish

Matt holding up the speaker at Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park

My feet were tired

The Grant Park Fountain is big.

Outside Robie House. They don't let you photograph the inside.

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Oh, and Matt bought some new kicks

OK, so now the blog is completely up to date. Right now, we’re on our way to Stacey’s House outside Cincinnati, and praying the Bishops don’t need their laundry machine today, because we’re pretty overdue. The rest of the journey we’ll be spending nights at classmates’ houses, so I shouldn’t have a problem finding Wifi to keep this blog updated.

See you later, Alligators;

-Steve

The Pacific Northwest and the Oregon Trail

So apologies for the infrequent blogging, but apparently the middle of the country has the patchiest data-coverage of anywhere we’ve been so far. Anyway, let’s try and get up to speed:

When we left off, we had stopped to spend the night at Cait’s house in San Jose. The next morning, we headed north for a drive through San Francisco and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping at the Lone Sailor Memorial and William Webb’s China Cabin on our way out of the city. We stopped at an In-N-Out to do that California thing, and then went for a wine tasting at the Kendall-Jackson winery because we figured that’s something you’re supposed to do in Northern California. Finally, we stopped at some RV park just north of the California-Oregon border to camp for the night.

Unfortunately, it was a too foggy to get any good photos of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Lone Soldier Memorial

The China Cabin

Hey, I know that guy!

Outside the Cabin 

Wine tasting with Melanie. Or Melody. Or something else like that.

Jack stopped to smell the roses

At the campsite

After camping, we headed north through Oregon on our way up to Portland. We stopped at a Cabela’s – just because that’s somewhere most of us had never been before – and checked out all the guns and animals. Then we reached Portland and stopped at the home of this trip’s second Webb-Trustee, John Russell (’67), along with his wife, Mary. After doing some laundry and drinking some of John’s beer, we headed into downtown Portland to wander around and check out a few of the bars. The next morning John and Mary made us an awesome breakfast, and we headed on our way.

There was a gun library and an archery range

And apparently this is a "small Cabela's." Who knew?

Yeah, the view from John's house is just OK.

Being classy in the yard

In the backyard with John and Mary

Portlandia is the second largest copper statue in the country. You'd have to head back to New York to see the first.

Just before we left in the morning

Leaving Portland, we stopped at Multnomah Falls to see the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States. From there, we headed into Seattle to meet up with a few alumni, including Brent Morrison (’11), Stefan Wolzcko (’09), and our third board member, Matt Tedesco (’91). We walked around Seattle to see some of the sights, got dinner at Pyramid Brewery with the alumni, and then headed back to Stefan’s condo to kick back and have a few beers. In the morning: we bid adieu to two members of our road-trip crew. Jared will soon start work at Kvichak Marine in Seattle, and so he stayed behind to start apartment hunting and settling in, and Jack stayed behind to spend a few days visiting some family and to fly back to New York with his cousin.

Multnomah Falls is the second tallest year round waterfall in the country at 620 ft. Again, the first is back in New York.

Jared found this little cave thing

The Seattle skyline

Us with the alumni: Brent (third from left) Stefan (third from right) and Matt (second from right)

Hangin' at Stefan's

Getting ready to leave in the morning. If you wondering why Jared looks homeless, it's because at the moment he kind of is.

...and then there were six.

So that's that for the Pacific Northwest. By now, we're actually in South Dakota, but all that's a little much for just one blog. If I can get any real internet access, I'll get this thing back up to speed tomorrow.

Bye for now,

-Steve