Dairy Queen, A and W, Arctic Circle (only a rootbeer float though), Texaco, Ampride, Amoco (and a whole slew of other gas station/convenience stores), Hardees (which is now owned by Carl’s Junior)

Won’t eat that. Not yet.

‘It’s ridiculous to walk that far for a stupid animal.’ – overheard in Yellowstone coming out the mouth of a middle-aged woman… what the hell was she doing in Yellowstone?

It’s such an exhilarating feeling to bike through Yellowstone and show no fear for all the freaking motor homes as they pass. The culminating experience was definitely the ride out of the East Entrance, riding 35-40 down that awesome hill, taking up the whole lane, forcing cars to obey the speed limit.

Idaho

‘This grass is like high school grass.’ – Luke in Iowa during RAGBRAI

‘No, this grass is like bank grass.’ – Luke, quickly amending his statement.

‘Let’s just go over there.’ – Mark, while pointing to a city a little bit off the road in the dark outside of Valentine, NE, moments before totally wiping out due to the road turning into gravel.

‘I think I’m going to get Da Bomb.’ – Mark at a convenience store, getting his lunch which happened to be a huge red-hot burrito with a funny moniker.

‘You ugly!’ – Max’s way of telling me that someone in the near vicinity was totally, butt ugly (usually a white person, no offense).

Pho Found, Trip Over

‘Let’s just take the freakin’ train the rest of the way!’ – Mark and Max, after their first train ride.

As soon as we broke down and bummed our first ride, we had no qualms of doing it over and over again, although we only ended up doing it two more times and only when we blew a tire or something.

The inside of our tent was the site of many a killing. Bloody smears everywhere from where we smashed mosquitoes and other bugs.

Never trust a local to give you good biking directions. Half of them don’t know what a bike is.

‘Dude, that person should NOT be wearing a Superman T-shirt!’ – Mark, gawking at the largest man in the world wearing a baby-T with his midrift showing. The word ‘midrift’ automatically perks up any room, but this guy totally ruined the image for Mark.

Make sure you buy the right kind of chain for your bike. When I replaced my chain in Prineville with a new one, the two highest (as in smallest rear cogs) started skipping. I had thought that I just needed to replace the casette and had to wait until Boise to do so. It turns out that the chain that I put on sucked for my set-up. Next time I’m sticking to a name brand like Shimano or Sachs. – Mark

Max’s stuff in black, Mark’s in brown.

Now what?

in Princeton with Ted and Bindiya

So we rented a U Haul and high tailed it to Princeton. We both have some time to visit friends on the East Coast before going back to the west. My brother misses Robin and Ushki. I miss San Francisco and friends. And yet, I’m only going back for maybe a week before I leave to Japan, China, East Malaysia, and finally Australia. I’m going to be doing more of this travelling craziness for the next few months! What am I thinking? Unfortunately I didn’t make my Green Tortoise reservation in time and I will not be riding the hippie bus for 16 days from Boston to San Francisco. Most likely I’ll be taking Amtrak, but now I can visit North Carolina.

All three of us piled into this U-haul, after doing a whole lot of phone calls finding out that most of the rental car places wouldn’t work for us due to a minimum age requirement (Max is 24) or the fact that they don’t do one-way rentals. When we finally found a rental place that would work, we discovered that it was about $100 more than a U-haul rental. The New Jersey Turnpike was a new experience for me. I thought the rest areas that have restaurants and gas were kinda funny, and I could’ve added about 3 items to my fast food firsts list.

We got to Princeton and spent a night with Ted, a high school friend. Ted makes awesome tacos al pastor. Princeton is the ice cream social capital of the world.

crazy ducks

Movie of the Infinite Hallway in MIT

Movie of the Infinite Hallway in MIT part 2

in Boston on the Freedom Trail

Chris likes fruity drinks more than I do.

The next few days were just us hanging around Boston, Max with Nancy and me with Chris. At one point George catched a plane from Providence back to Reed. I went to hang out with Ben in Providence for a couple of days before taking Amtrak back home. Read Cryptonomicon on the train.

Movie of that chair piece in the Arthur Ganson MIT exhibit (might have to boost up your monitor brightness)

Redbones bbq place – they have a bicycle valet.

virtual aquarium at Boston Science Museum

Movie of the lightning show at the Boston Science Museum

Dunkin Donuts with fellow Reedies: Tom, Stephanie, Claire, Mark, Chris, Ben

at Claire’s after donuts

Right now it is time to sleep and read. STILL haven’t finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I just bought the Joy of Yiddish. Oy! Soon this meshuggener is coming home.

Amtrak sunset

Movie of Mark’s train ride home

If there is one thing that people should learn from our trip, I believe that it is to take life a little slower, think about your actions, enjoy the world around you, and ensure that it lasts for others. Coming in at a close second, though, is some bicycle knowledge: 26 x 1.25 tires are NOT the same as 26 x 1-1/4 tires.