Parkers the man

If you didn't already know, now you do.

After we slept at a truck stop roughly 35 minutes north of where Parker lives in Chicago, we drove back south to meet up and found our man, on the corner of Kimball and Parker (heh) essentially. In a part known as Logan square.

First things first. Enjoy the Purple Object.

Parkers pad (middle right apt)

rents way cheaper in this part of Chicago than it is at home

After we smoked and got semi-caught up we played wedraw through some logitech keyboard system.  I'm not going to try and explain what it actually was other than digital pictionary.

A few games of that plus two six packs of Chicago (or other surrounding places) microbrews it was time to hit up another apartment of kids down by Lincoln Park.

took chicagos fine public transport

I hope I still remember the names correctly of who we met... there was a Billy, a Craig, a Blake ...and definitely more but we got hammered so I'm lucky I still know those names.

Cool kids.

Craig showed us the algorithms to complete a rubicks cube quickly and efficiently. These are the skills I've been looking to learn on the road. Seriously

Matthew on the Cube

-------------------------------- We drank and hung out trading stories and whatnot til 3am or so.

Ohio is the New Connecticut

To me anyway, we drove right through it overnight.  Now I'm sure Ohio has something to offer that is cool, maybe it's the food, the people, whatever. Personally I've always kind of hated Ohio. I'm not ready to part with that feeling so I think we did well to avoid it as much as possible.

They did have nice wide smooth drivin' roads though.  All the better to get the hell out of the state on.

We did use our first truck stop shower in Ohio

 I've used worse

From this stop all the way to Gary, Indiana. It poured.  From the hours of 2:30 am til about 8 am I put on Girl Talk Pandora and without the aid of coffee or cigarettes hauled ass over these lame States of Ohio and Indiana to the fine city of Chicago

Also, some stuff I forgot about Philly.  Lots of cool Sculptures and Murals

 First place I've ever tagged. Thanks Philly

Thanks for this bullshit ticket that ended up costing 36 dollars more

Dont Eat the Cheese Steak

After we evacuated a flying squirrel and caught up with Phyllis, we spent the night at her house, had breakfast and planned for Philly.

After the 45 minute or so drive, we parked on South st., since it was all we knew for street names, from our cousin Melissa. It was mostly smaller cafes and bars.( Definitely could see why you would go there growing up).

 

 city hall isnt playing around. These spikes mean business

Right at city hall we happened to stumble upon Occupy Philly...

we shouldve just setup camp and fit in

Though the cause may be in fact righteous, the people I saw were mostly just activist dicks who werent sure what they truly believed.  Or just straight up homeless finally finding somewhere to sleep and hang with a large crew.  Whatever. I'm not writing about the new trend to Occupy.

After we walked around downtown we decided it was time to eat the real deal for Philly. 

The cheesesteak.

 we each got a cheese steak from rival places, right across the st from one another

Matthew got a Genos, I got a Pats.

Matthew didnt eat for roughly 17 hours after this.

He hates Philly Cheesesteaks now.

After filling up on the dripping subs of destruction and a few beers we decided to overnight it through Ohio and Indiana straight to Chicago.

13.5 hours and 740 miles?

Out from nowhere

Today we start in Breiningsville, PA at my Aunt Phyllis' house
52 degrees and sunny.

It was roughly 6 hours and 340 miles to get to here from Salem and after all that driving, I'm still thoroughly convinced that all of Conneticut is just smooth roads and gas stations. Never seen a house down there...just a few condos placed right by highways.

We did not stop for this state.

There wasnt much to get excited about yet anyway. The roads feel mostly the same as they do around home, plus we still havent been through anywhere we havent already been before. It did feel good to see the 'Entering the Empire State' sign.  Just knowing we were out of New England helps make the trip feel more real, even if we aren't stopping in NY till we turn around and come home.

Taking photos while driving is what the cool kids do.

There was a waffle house off of rte 78 that we stopped at on our way to our Aunts house.  This is not the delicious waffle house of the south that I remember. Apparently they do things differently in PA...

excuse me while I gorge on biscuts and gravy

Now, before we go further west and hide in heavily wooded areas, we are gonna hit up Philly and see if we can get Matthew into a bar fight.  All bruins gear at a Flyers bar + drunk Matthew?

Yeah.

We're gonna score our first encounter with the authorities.

We might even find one Ross Philips if he isnt working.

Oh. You can pretty much ignore the first two posts of this blog too.  We're going where it feels like we should go, so the haphazard plan of random parks is being avoided until the parks are within reach.

I never was into planning anyway

Music -  Lauryn Hill , Biggie, Brooklyn Hip hop
Greens - Blue Kush, Flo

Drank too much for 4 am leave so...

Nevermind Ohio! (for now)
We head to Pennsylvania! Matthew and I were going to leave early and do the Ohio run, but, we both went out and drank downtown til roughly the time we were going to head out.

Allegheny National Forest in PA, is like 4 hours closer and we have our aunt whose kickin it somewhere south of Hersey, so we're gonna go say hi to her too.

After this screw the North East. I've got a deep desire to get all the way away from all these states that are a day trip away from home.

Less than a week.

I've realized that I never use Facebook.
So I started this Blog to upload all the videos and horrible stories I'll try to recall while on the road and in the woods.
Also seeing as how its probably not going to be very 'p.c.' can someone edit out all of the "ruining the country as we cross it" bits? Just so my mom and grandparents can see it and not know how awful we truly are? thanks.
All I think I'll have is an iphone which I still have never really used and wont be able to do much editing so the whole thing is probably going to be fairly boring. I know that I never like pulling a camera out at a moment I think is either hilarious or beautiful.
Who the hell wants a piece of plastic and lens in their face when thats happening anyway?

Anyway. We leave Monday morning hopefully around 4 or 5 am. First stop is in Ohio, at Cuyahoga Valley.

Its right around there.