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Seriously who writes the copy for commercials. Watch this ad and wait for the voice-over in the end. Really, who writes this...

Towels Towels Towels

Do you want to be a frood who knows where there towel is?
Well tomorrow is your chance for it is Towel Day in honor of the man no adjective can do justice to, Douglas Adams. For those who do not know Douglas Adams is the author of many books the most famous of which is Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, within which it is unveiled that the towel is the most important tool to any prospective pan-galactic hitchhiker. So tomorrow, May 25th, be sure to have your towel on you at all times for you never know when your Sub-Etha radio will alert you to your next ride.

For more information visit the official Towel Day website http://www.towelday.kojv.net.

Surprises

When I surprised my mom it was priceless. I knocked on her door, which was open so I let myself in to watch her face go from confused to confounded to flummoxed to simply surprised and finally glad.
She described what she thought when I walked in like this:
"It was 2 pm, and the only people who knock on my door at 2 are Jehovah's Witnesses but as the door swung open I saw the shirt you were wearing and it was NO suit and I wondered who the hell would knock other than a witness. Remember your face was blocked by the door at this point, then the door swung open all the was and I saw it was you, but I knew full well it could not be you. Finally it sunk in when you spoke.
That was when she said hello and gave me a welcome hug.
When I went to surprise my sister I did not get quite as positive a reaction. She knew I was coming down but thought that I was going to be days later to North Carolina than I was, as a matter of face as far as she knew I was going to surprise Mom in Baltimore. Instead I show up at he office carrying a bag of cheese curds the day after I called her to let her know I was leaving Denmark. Her first word to me was "Liar" then she said thanks for the cheese curds, she after all was very happy that they still had squeak.

The Case of the Stalking Storm

BOOM!!!!
That is the sound that woke me up at 1:15 am Tuesday. Well not boom per say, but the noise of thunder from a lightning strike way too close for comfort.
BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!
The thunder kept rolling through my room, only pausing for a moment to increase my level of consciousness, I did not need this I had an exam at 8 am that I had to look forward too, not to mention that after that I was starting off on my road trip to North Carolina.
BOOM!!! BOOM!! BOOM! Boom. boom, bo...
Finally the storm moved away from my house and the thunder reduced in volume and I struck back out into the land of the sandman. I woke up with 45 minutes less sleep than I felt that I deserved but still enough to do well, I think, on my exam; and definitely enough to start out on my drive with high hopes of the adventures awaiting me.

Plop, plop, plop, plop, plop!
That is the sound that cast a dark cloud on my road trip, well actually the dark cloud caused the sound but it is a good metaphor. Around and hour into my trip I ran into a rain storm, actually the trailing end of the rain storm that woke me up the night before.
Plop, plop, plop.
Driving in the rain has never been my cup of tea, so trying to drive in the rain when one of my windshield wipers is slightly defective is so opposite what I wanted to do I almost screamed. Well, actually, I did scream at points.
Plop, plop, plo...
At times the rain stopped on my drive. These respites were mana from a greater realm, and in them I started to see the joy of taking a drive across the country. The small country towns with their rustic buildings and fun names, the great expanses of open land that hold such peace in their seeming eternity, even the cities take on a different light as bastions of civilization and light and life. But then,
PLOP, PLOP, PLOP
The rain starts falling again, as does my increasingly fast descent into bitterness.

BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!
That is the sound of the storm that already awoke me once and is now forcing me to stop driving for the night.
I had finally caught up to the heart of it, that evil, maniacal storm that started by waking me up and then drenching my hopes of a fun filled drive, and now well now it finally showed how evil it was.
BOOM!!!! BOOM!!!!
I had been on the road for 10 hours and had spent the last 3 in the tranquility of night time driving, without the menace of rain, when I saw ahead of me a sky-spanning lightning strike. The thunder came running down from the cloud and hit the highway speeding towards a head-on collision with my ear drums.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
I recognized that thunder immediately. It was the same thunder that had woken me up the night before. The lightning strikes that followed were also familiar to my eyes, they had been there colluding with the thunder the night before too. Pure evil.

Plop, plop, plop, plop!
That is the sound of rain falling outside a Super 8 in the early morning. The remnants of the evil storm was still looming overhead after I awoke. It would not leave me alone.
Plop, plop, plop, plop!
It followed me through me through Columbus.
Plop, plop, plop, plop!
It even endangered my life in West Virginia. It really opened up and formed a down pour just as I was passing through the treacherously mountainous landscape of I-77. It did this just as I was stuck between two semi-trucks, it really hated me that storm.
Plop, plop, plo...
Finally I lost it about halfway though West Virginia and I could truly enjoy the beauty of the vistas afforded by the Appalachian range.

Vroom!
That is the sound of my car, and the others around me, as I drive blissfully rain free through Virginia and North Carolina.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
Oh the sound of joy.

Plop, plop, plop, plop!
It found me again in North Carolina hours later. I fear I will never be dry again.
Plop, plop, plop, plop

Road Trip 1

May 15th
Time 8:51 AM CST Mileage 99352
Filled up on 9.5 gallons of gas at Bay Settlement BP in Green Bay

Time 9:55 AM CST Mileage 99378
Bought Cheese Curds and Mint Fudge at Steve's Cheese Denmark WI

Time 11:45 AM CST Mileage 99498
2 hours 56 minutes 143 miles 1.5 liters of water 1 b-Refreshed Glaceau Vitamin Water Some Cheddar Beer Kettle brand Kettle Chips and Steve's Cheese cheese curds and 1 less shirt I am now off of I-94 exit 322(Ryan Rd) a bit south of Milwaukee for my 1st Rest Stop at a Shell Station. It was neccesary.

Obserbvations-There was a Semi carrying 2 huge signs meant to be outside of a hospital that read emergency. It is almost scary to ride next to these, they are so out of place on the road, I just hope that they are not trying to be a premonition.

Time 12:40 PM CST Mileage 99522
IPOD voice recorder attachments are impossible to find. I am stopped at Circuit City at the Gurnee Mills Outlet Center and no love. But the bathrooms were useful, I have drank way too much this trip.

Observations-Creepiest Billboard ever. A bunch of kids laying on a beach in swimwear and there is Elmo standing up in the middle of them. This is for 1800beaches. I mean what does elmo have to do with beaches.

Time 2:22 Mileage 99576
So I finally gave up on getting an IPOD Voice Recorder, after my second Circuit City with a Best Buy and an Office Depot inbetween. I just bought a Sony Voice Recorder at the 2nd Circuit City, in a shopping center in Berwyn Illinois, instead.
The name of this Shopping Center is Cermak Plaza. It has something wonderful in its parking lot. A Spike. More specifically a Spike with Cars on it.

P1030793
Originally uploaded by rogueleadZER0.

Gas Prices
Green Bay 3.25
Milwaukee 3.49
Chicago 3.59

Time 5:32 Mileage 99660
I am tired of the rain and B and J's American Cafe La Porte IN was closed and this is the 3rd strike for this road trip. The first was the amazing amount of time I had to drive in the rain, second was managing to get stuck in rush hour traffic in Chicago at 3 O'Clock, and finally the Cafe being closed, this was to be the place that really kicked off the roadside americana theme of this trip as it was the place that a very americana book by the name of La Porte, IN. So 3 strike and you are out road trip I am going to drive as long as I can tonight and try to make it to North Caronlina early on Wednesday.

P1030819
Originally uploaded by rogueleadZER0.

Time 8:31 PM CST Mileage 99740
Filled up at Wolf Lake IN with 10.33 gallons of gas, so that makes my mileage so far is 38 miles to the gallon.

Gas prices
Indiana side of IN-IL border 3.49
Wolf Lake IN-3.38
Beaverdam OH-3.08

May 16th
Time 12:45 AM EST Mileage 99927
So it just started raining way to hard, lightning strikes and everything and I am dead tired, and that is why I am in a Super 8 in Maryville OH a bit outside of Columbus.

Time 5:20 AM EST Mileage 99927
I am off again and its still fucking raining.

Time 5:50 AM EST Mileage 99947
I just got through Columbus OH and I loved it. I drove through the center of the city and I had forgotten how soothing driving through a city early in a morning can be. There is a certain unfilled potential that exists at such a time. Even the bars are closed and few cars pass
on the road. There are a few people on the sidewalks either walking off a really late night or getting a really early start. But even with these things happening it is as if the city is a giant asleep in his room, sleeping as soundly as a stone, such that nothing can wake it up. I felt as though I was Jack in the Giants house and no matter what I did the Giant would keep on snoring.

P1030821
Originally uploaded by rogueleadZER0.

Time 9:24 AM EST Mileage-100137
Filled up at Marmet WV Go-Stop with 9.521 Gallons. Oh and I totally missed when my odometer turned over 100,000.

Gas prices
Marmet WV-3.24
Somewhere on I-40 in NC-2.92
Raleigh NC-3.02

Time 2:15 PM EST Mileage-100450
1100 miles 29 hours 7 states and I am finally at moms in Raleigh NC

Trip Path
I-43->I-94->I-290->I-90->IN-39->IN-35->US-6->US-33->US-30->I-75->US-33->I-77->I-74->
US-52->I-40->Wade Ave->Ridge Rd->Lewis Farm Rd

Arena Football

Earlier tonite I attended a Green Bay Blizzard Arena football game and well it rocked rather hard. It is definetly a game for the New Sincerity. One can not help but like it for the most sincere of motives. The speed at which it is played and the intensity of the hits are just amazing. Also on the New Sincerity front whenever the Blizzard scored they played Andrew WK, which for all the maximum fun people out there as well as fans of the Sound of Young America know is a definite musical member of the New Sincerity more information on which can be found at http://blaggblogg.blogspot.com/2005/11/new-sincerity.html, and me and my friends all shared high fives which are always Awesome. So if anyone out there has a chance to attend an Arena Football game do it for they are great fun and do not forget to be liberal with your high fives.

Re-Opened

I am going to re=open this blog, completely free of previous posts and see if i can keep it up longer than I did before. Things to look foward to in the near future are enteries on my road trip to north carolina, which i will be journaling and posting up to here as well as comments on all things new sincerity.
for today i am going to simply post on what podcasts i have been listening to recently that are amazing.
The Sound of Young America and Jordan Jesse Go- both from http://www.maximumfun.org which is also the home of the new sincerity. TSOYA is a great interview show that tends to have guests from either the comedic or musical sphere and Jesse Thorn is an amazing radio host. He is also co-host of the podcast Jordan Jesse Go which is simply the funniest podcast I have ever heard. You can also find many other podcasts at maximum fun such as Kasper Hauser which is a sketch comedy group that is also actually funny.
Oh-La-La-Franco a gogo is a french pop music podcast that has been the soundtrack to my internet adventures ever since i grabbed this link http://www.oh-la-la.nl/ from http://boingboing.net
Finally I am going to suggest that everyone who does not listen to it on NPR every single week already goes over to http://www.thislife.org/ and grabs the podcast of this american life, the greatest radio show ever.