After Camp! Day One: Henryville, PA-Manhattan, NY

August 12, 2009
Henryville, PA to Manhattan, NY
Miles: 92 miles

I woke up in my tent pitched between B12 and B11. Good night the prior evening at the ghost, I’m pretty confident that I had a heart to heart conversation with all of the counselors in my division and reflected on the summer and talked about the good times and future meet ups throughout the year.

Middle camp!

Packed some final things into Falcor and said many teary goodbyes as the bus pulled away from camp with many of our best friends in it. Shortly after, Darea, Niall and I all pulled out of camp Lindenmere as well blasting “forever” by Chris Brown. A slight problem was Darea’s missing credit card, but it was soon recovered, along with 15 others that were left behind the night before.

Finally on the road and parked my car at Newark Airport and took the bus to Port Authority in Manhattan. Walked a few blocks and caught a cab the rest of the way to our hostel on the upper west side next to central park called “Jazz on the City” It was a very jazzy place. Met up with Anna, Caitlin, and Dom who were all staying with us!


Walked to Barnes and Nobel, bought some gifts for people and stood in line for tickets to a musical. After getting the tickets, we had lunch at an Amish Deli and I ate a raw avocado and a nice sandwich. Walked back to the Julliard Theatre and I saw my first musical! It was called South Pacific and I enjoyed it very much. I’d go to another show again for sure! After the show Anna and I walked to Veronica’s apartment and got Anna’s bags and headed home and promptly went to sleep. Had trouble sleeping with the weird guy in our hostel shining his flashlight in our eyes and making strange noises in his bed. Oh well that’s the traveler’s life right? –Love, Luke

Day 4: Chicago, IL to Manhattan, NY

June 16, 2009
Miles: 792.5 miles 12 hours 45 minutes
Music: Avett Brothers, Passion Pit, Coldplay, My Chemical Romance, Band of Horses, Circa Survive, Keane

Turns out that KTK’s blogs are way more entertaining than mine so I’m leaving it up to her write most of it (obviously) In New York, I will drop the girls off in Manhattan, and continue to my beloved summer camp in Pennsylvania for the summer. There I will work until August 11th with my awesome camp friends. After camp, the road trip journey continues with my trip back to Oregon through the South. I’m sure I’ll have at least a couple people in the car with me so stay tuned for that!

Woke up this morning around 6, and left Chicago. Katy and Katie literally slept through the entire state of Indiana and a chunk of Ohio. Whenever I’d stop for gas or coffee, they just kept on sleeping away like crazy! Tired little friends. I was feeling very energized and excited to be alive and awake. Form 5am all the way till about 1 or 2, I drove many miles and listened to music, and made some phone calls because I had no conversation companions that were awake! Oh well I guess they are both total wimps who can’t handle a little sleepiness. Anyways, a successful days with no disasters! (besides getting lost)
Love, Luke

5:45am
Just woke up….was kinda pissed about it. Luke was saying we looked like “haggard hot messes”. I gave him a muggin’ mean look and then he said “BITCH PAAHHLEEAAASE”. I then made a conscious decision not to talk to him the rest of the trip. Still really tired, but my mood was instantly reversed when Katy looked at me and said “Is this when we steal all their shit?” LOL. Katy has been filled with all those one liners all trip and has made me a Luke crack up. And then we stole all of Jason and his roommate’s shit. Including all of Jason’s hand-made stuff. They were really high quality.

11:45 am
OMG. Me and Katy basically woke up. We slept through the entire state of Indiana, and are now in Ohio. Luke has been driving the entire time….I think he took some crack-cocaine. He has been so hyper. He says it’s because he’s excited to get to camp, but me and Katy know better. He’s been an avid drug user, he told us himself. Oh, and Luke was right, me and Katy do look like haggard hot messes. We haven’t showered, and it’s obvious. Luke had been really lonely with us not being awake for like, 5 hours, and said that he’s been talking to a lot of people on the phone. We felt kinda bad, until we remembered that he deleted all the videos from yesterday and went right back to hating him. Just kidding….but seriously. We woke up to Luke zooming into an Ohio-an rest stop which are called “service plazas”. THESE REST AREAS ARE SOOOOOO NICE!! Ohio, who knew? It was like an airport mall….there were restaurants, gas, and really nice restrooms. Me and Katy hadn’t eaten, so we loaded up on some nasty but amazing fast food. After we got all our food, Luke went to open his Dr.Pepper….and not thinking before doing, opened it all crazy like and it exploded everywhere. I mean, it hit Katy in the back seat, all over himself and the steering wheel. Nice. He had to baby wipe everything down.

6:24pm
Mother Mavin’s Meathloaf we have been in traffic like crazy today! We are lucky because it’s the first real traffic we’ve seen so far on this trip so booyah to that. We are in the middle of Pennsylvania and are about three hours away from New York. Me and Katy will part from Luke then, which is unfortunate. I mean, I definitely won’t miss his stinking ass, but well miss him enough… I won’t have a computer to “adventure document”, but I plan on actually writing it down in a journal and throw it back to 1995. Me and Katy will have the video camera too and we will attempt to make memorable clips all while making it entertaining and hilarious. –KTK

10pm Pshhhhh my flatulent wind compare not to Katie’s farts. They have been bustin outta there like a squirrel being chased by a dog. The only thing worse than her farts is how crappy of a driver she is. Just kidding. But seriously. Learn to drive. Seriously though today we got lost for about an hour in Ohio. It was my fault, not Katie’s. (surprisingly) That was a fun side note adventure that only happened the one time. I called my friend Nate’s vet in Portland for him and made an appointment for his dog Gatsby...from Ohio. Nate’s phone wasn’t making outgoing calls so he emailed me and asked me to call the vets! She thought it was strange when I explained it, but whatevs. What are friends for right?

11:57 pm
Well I made it. I finally got to Camp! I dropped Katy and Katie off at their hostel in Harlem, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods around. I know they’ll be OK though. I could not have asked for two better friends to drive across the country with. I love you both and I’ll see you in September! I fel like we were honestly laughing most of the time. We all decided that it was the perfect amount of time to spend together without actually getting on each other’s nerves. Said our goodbyes and thus ends the celebration of mine and Katie’s celebration of graduating college together. I wish you both the best of luck in Manhattan and Washington DC. Travel safe, be well, speak often, and know that I love you.

I got lost in Manhattan trying to find some friends to meet up with and ended up in Brooklyn. Oops. The strangest thing occurred to me that I want to remember. All this time people have been asking me how I could stand being in the car that long. I didn’t think it would be that bad and it wasn’t! especially with cool people and good music (A LOT OF GOOD MUSIC) Anyways, I was sitting in traffic getting frustrated with the slowness of the cars while I was getting on the Brooklyn bridge. Once I managed to get out of the city, things learned up and I felt free again. I actually missed the feeling of being on the open road. I think I have caught the traveling bug long ago, but this trip has intensified it. I want to live in Chicago and visit Wyoming again before grad school starts. Many good things are happening!

The intensity of this documenting will subside slightly now that I’m at camp. I’ll try to update and write an entry at least once a week, if not more. The reason being that I am at camp and don’t have the down time like I did in the car. It’s important to remember the past, even though it’s dead. It helps make decisions for the future, even though it doesn’t exist yet. J I will post the writings from Katie and Katie in NY once, they get them to me in Pennsylvania including photos and videos from their trip! The stories are not over, just spit into two parts.

I guess you could think of it as a “choose your own adventure” story, or make a decision about what door or curtain you think the prize is behind. ;)

I Flew back to camp as fast as I could on I-80 and arrived to an empty nightscape exactly how I remember it. The sound of the gravel, crickets, creaking screen doors, and wind in the trees is exactly how I left it.

I left one home and arrived at another.

It’s like I never left.
Love, Luke

trip overview thus far:
States: Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York.

Miles Luke, Katy, and Katie traveled from OR-NY: 3054.3

Quotes:
It was the Pennies –Luke
Is this when we steal all their shit? –Katy
It’s the Kum and Go! –KTK
BIIIIIIITTTCCCCHHHHHHH PPPPAAAAAAHHHHHLLEEEAAAASSEE!! –All
Fo’ free? –Katy
That’s what she said –All
Balls! –All
I need a belt! –KTK
I know what to do, I’ll drink more water –Luke
Sleep tight, hope you don’t get crabs –Katy
They can totally tell we’re from Oregon –Katy
Derpa der der! –KTK and Luke
Seriously, we’re still on I-80? –All
Shit! We’re getting back on I-80! –All
Fuck you Ohio! And you too Nebraska! –Luke
You’d be peeing in someone’s front yard… -Katy
Did you delete…ALL the videos? –KTK
Are there any cops out here? –ALL (about lack of cops)
Fuck semi trucks. –Luke
Guys! We have to tune into 1640AM! –KTK
Seriously, what is the deal with Jon and Kate plus 8? –Luke

Katie, don’t tell your mom you’re staying in Harlem ok? –Luke
Sure I’ll tell her…when I’m DEAD! -Katie

Day 3: Junesburg, CO-Omaha, NE-Chicago, IL

June 15, 2009
Junesburg-Omaha: 359.7 5 hours
Omaha-Chicago: 467.2 miles 7 hours 18 minutes
Music: Cloud Cult, Coheed and Cambria, Muse, Mates of State, Explosions in the Sky, Sufjan Stevens (duh)

Janet
Something about the Midwest honey
Oh it makes me miss you more than life
Could be the trees that stand alone in the fields
They remind me every couple of miles
I'd love to stop our lives, stop everything
Just so we could move far away
We'll live alone together with the sweat of the summer
With the chill of the cold winter air, oh yeah
-The Format

6:20
Woke up around 6am and hit the road. Beautiful foggy sunrise. With crazy Midwestern trees standing alone in a field. Got a whole new meaning to the song “Janet” by the Format. The lines are above. We have along drive ahead of us if we are to make it to Chicago by dinner!



12:37pm
I am incredibly proud of ourselves because we made it all the way to Omaha, Nebraska before stopping at a McDonalds. Good for us and our healthy diets! My granny packed us a cooler full of tasty treats that as kept us going for a while. Tried to contact some couchsurfers in Chicago, but so far, no luck. Might have to stay at a hostel tonight, which might be fun! Love, Luke

Chicago here we come! Katy totally busted out some driving this morning. I was impressed. We have been in the car a “shit-ton” according to Luke. Oh man, we have all had the worse gas. Sorry, it had to be said, because it was that bad. It is totally seeping in the upholstery. Sorry Falcor. We got a hold of a guy on CouchSurfing and are planning on staying with him in Chicago! So excited. He’s also a mega babe and in a band. I decided to put on makeup for him because I was looking like a serious scrub (I love TLC).


So, we have just finished our adventure of Chicago with Justin, I mean Jason! Oh man, I kept calling him Justin and felt really bad. When we first arrived to his apartment, it was a little awkward, but we warmed up to each other pretty well. Such a nice apartment! Really impressed. He took us first to see Lake Michigan which was only 4 blocks away from where he lived. So pretty! And so clear! Surprising. There were also a ton of people around. We went on a massive walk around downtown Chicago and saw so much! We went to Millennium Park to see some sculptures and The Famous Bean! The one from Mork and Mindy! Luke got some sweet pictures, but then we were ran out of the park by like, 4 guards. Apparently it’s closed at midnight. Go figure.



We then went to go get some of Chicago’s famous deep dish pizza, but everywhere was closed. So we decided to get some of Chicago’s famous hotdogs at a place called Picadillo’s. AWESOME. I enjoyed it. We seriously went all over Chicago, Justin….I mean Jason was awesome for giving us a tour. He also knew so much about everything! He told us about the architecture of the buildings (The Sears Tower and The Hancock Tower and The Drake Hotel….), told us the real reason why Chicago is called the “Windy City” (really about corrupt politicians during prohibition blowing “hot air”) and lots of other fun facts.

Our favorite part was going to the “bad part of town”. There was blood on the street people, real crazy stuff. Not just a little blood, like nose bleed shit….we’re talking a lot of blood. Plus this part of town was where The Dark Knight was filmed!!!!!! SO COOL! Jason showed us where the crazy semi-truck scene was. The street he also lived on was shut down for the movie. He also said Jake Gyllenhaal had a time share in one of the apartments on his street. I love Jake Gyllenhaal. Anyway, we got really tired and decided to go back on the “L” to Jason’s apartment. This is when shit hit the fan. Luke was going through all our videos we recorded for the day (which was probably a good 10 videos) and DELETED THEM ALL. I hated him so much right then. Katy still hasn’t forgiven him….honestly, I’m not sure if I’m over it yet. We are making him do an apology video. We had the coolest videos from Chicago! Whatevs....-KTK

Katy is really allergic to dogs, cats, and generally everything. Right when we got there, Jason said, “Oh sorry we should have cleaned up more.” There was dog and cat hair layered on every piece of furniture. Obviously, this didn’t bother me at all, but sent Katy into a rage of coughing and sneezing. Poor thing. Our couchsurf hosts had a dog named Boggart. These are the names that Katie accidently called him: Gadget, Go-gurt, Bilbo, and Gizmo….lol. She also thought Jason’s name was Justin THE WHOLE TIME!

Chicago ahs been the highlight of the trip for all of us I think. Lake Michigan is so clear, the architecture is stunning, and we met some nice folks.
We stayed up pretty late talking and joking around. We played a really fun game we like to call boobie tassles. Sounds ridiculous I know, but we earned it from our boss, so trust me, it’s legit The object is to say “boobie tassles” out loud while other people are talking but they can’t notice that you said it. Give it a try! Anyways fell asleep around 2 or 3am and I planned on getting us up and outta there by six. Obviously my sleeping schedule has been a little off… sleep well Chicago. You’re probably one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to.
Love, Luke

Day Two: Salt Lake City, UT-Junesberg, CO

June 14th, 2009
Miles: 580.2 miles 8 hours
Music: The Format, Tegan and Sara, Green Day, Sufjan Stevens

Left again around 1 and drove all day. Corin gave us cherries from her sweet Utah backyard. Good day. High spirits. Katy and Katie slept for a bit and I listened to Conor Oberst and grooved hard on it. Had some good talks about life and love when they woke up. Decided to try to find a hotel because we got no emails from couchsurfers.

Family friends in Utah!

We made the decision to stay in Colorado mostly to be able to say that we did. Arrived in Junesberg, CO around 9pm, Found an awesome country road to cross the border on and took some amazing photos and videos of the heat lightning that is up in the sky (doesn’t hit the ground or make thunder)

We Came to the sketchiest motel and no one answered. We were too reminded of the Texas chainsaw massacre and kept going. OK we found the second most sketchy hotel in the country. This cute mother and her 11-month-old son Wesley, who had a sweet ass dinosaur shirt, ran it. We hung out, no big deal. After arriving at our fabulous apartment style room, we decided to go to a bar. The bar was right across the street! Super sketchy but we wanted to learn about the place. We talked with the bartender Heidi and it was obvious that she had lived here her whole life and doesn’t see outta-towners like us. We were definitely the highlight of their week (as pretentious as that sounds, it was true) we told Heidi all about our trip over a pitcher of Coors which costs 7 dollars. Other locals came over interested in us and our story. One man in a sweet tie-dye shirt asked me what that lighted up box was around me neck. (I explained to him that it was a digital camera) He was pretty impressed to say the least. Then he asked if we had any magic mushrooms. Heidi told us that in their town of 1000 people, there were 14 churches. Welcome to Mormon Town baby.

Shortly after, a man named Drew challenged us to a game of foosball. Katy joined his team and Katie and I teamed up, despite my lack of any athletic ability aside from running (yes even at sports like foosball)

The first game was to be expected. Katy and Drew kicked our ass. Drew told us that all he does is play foosball all the time so it was to be expected. After some serious coaching from the soccer-player-in-real-life Katie, we stepped up our game and came out victorious. Drew said it was his first defeat in months… Finished our beer and now we’re off to bed after some retro-60’s-era photography of our sweet place. Waking up very early tomorrow.

PS Katie just came out to turn the lights off and I told her goodnight and that I’d just sleep on the couch. She looked at me and said, “I hope you don’t get crabs.” …. I said, “Thanks”.
Love,
Luke

So I had my first leg of driving today, heading out from Salt Lake. I cannot believe how many churches there were, seriously. I looked out the window to my right, and then saw another one to my left with another one 200 yards away from it. Talked to my sister Kelsey on the phone and told me to visit the town in Utah that actually advertises that they aren’t Mormon, but I wanted to get the crap out of there. I’m pretty sure I scared the begeebers out of Katy and Luke when I first started driving, it was so curvy! Plus a crazy thunder/lightning/hail storm decided to come down. We thought it was God punishing all the Mormon’s for not being in church on a Sunday. Or punishing us for making fun of Mormons.



After my leg, I took the beefiest nap and it was amazing. We were making good time, so we thought we’d stop early for the night and get an early start in the morning. Luke freaked us out when he hit a hug “red-neck” pothole. Katy had a bag of Oyster Crackers open and they went everywhere in the back seat. It was like half the bag. Pretty sure we picked the sketchiest place to stay, Junesburg, Colorodo. Seriously, I think that three families just moved there and decided to populate the area themselves. We took a picture by the “Welcome to Colorado!” sign and Katy totally stepped in a huge puddle. What a pathetic loser! (I only say that because for a good chunk of our travel today we did quoted Dumb and Dumber. It was awesome).

We found a hotel, and not wanting to pay for three people, I hid in the car while Luke and Katy booked a room. I was so scared the lady would see me through the window, but I hid under a pillow pretty good. We finally got it, and they told me to grab my bag when all of a sudden the lady we booked the room from came out of her apartment. I totally did some sort of Jujitsu move back into the car to try and get out of sight….I’m pretty sure she saw me, whatevs. Anyway, we get to our sweet 70’s style room and decided to go to the bar across the street where there were some locals. They were definitely interesting, one older gentlemen tried to unhook by bra. I didn’t mind. One lady kept harassing Katy asking her if she ever lived in Idaho, Montana, or Washington. We figured it was time to go when they kept talking about this large room next to the bar area, saying that “we should check it out” and that “they put you in there if you misbehave”. We were pretty sure we would have become sex-slaves if we decided to check it out. Luke thinks they were going to make us into skin-lampshades. I don’t know, I think that would be a really big waste of skin if you ask me. -KTK

Day One: Corvallis-Salt Lake City, Utah

June 13, 2009
Miles: 854.7 miles 12 hours, 58 minutes
Music: Jimmy Eat World, Radio Head, and some crazy rap John had…

The adventure begins! Partway through the longest car ride of my life, I decided it would be important to remember this epic journey. The following words will depict my cross country journey with my two wonderful friends Katie and Katy. Here we go!!!!!!



I never really wanted to go to the graduation ceremony but I was told I’d regret it if I didn’t. I have to admit, it felt pretty good to get to be all dressed up in my graduation attire and celebrate the end of my college career at OSU with my friends and family. Seeing that diploma gave me huge sense of relief and accomplishment for all the work I had done in the last four years. Work including, hours ad hours of studying, reading, writing, and pondering. I do feel educated and grateful for my time spent in Corvallis. but enough of that crap….IT”S SUMMER TIME!!!

We left Portland soon after saying goodbye to some dear friends who will be missed!

My cousin Nick and his friend John joined us to Salt Lake because they both have GFs in Salt Lake. Car ride was long and crowded, but not too bad all in all. Made it to Salt Lake City UT about 5am the next morning. Katie was so tired that she looked down at her legs and asked “Who’s legs are those.” I am not making that up at all. Here’s the proof of Katie’s extreme exhaustion: viseo Slept at Corin’s cute little house and slept like a baby in a coma.

It was nice to hang with my cousin Nick! At a random gas station in Idaho we were clever enough to come up with this picture…. …some things really do never change I guess…

FYI: Katie K. has decided to join me in the blogging duties. I hate the word “blog” so instead I’ll use “Adventure Documentation” She’s really funny and is a good writer (fellow psychology graduate!) so now at the end of a paragraph by her it will say “-KTK”
Love, Luke

I can’t believe I’m actually on the road! This is nuts, and I’m so happy to be sharing this journey with my two of my dearest friends. It hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m a college graduate and that I probably won’t ever live in Corvallis again. I’m sad, but I’m happy to have left OSU on a good note. Now we’re off to New York! I’m thinking that I should stay there and become an actress, screw my college degree! Fame and Fortune is what I’m after. I must say, riding in a car with 5 people is a little intense…..I’m pretty sure 3 people max is best for Luke’s grandma car, but it was nice to meet Nick and John. Probably the most of the exhausted I’ve been in a while, so I’m gonna go! -KTK