The Great American Hippo
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Before the energy of New York City erases my short term memory, I would like to acknowledge certain individuals, places and things which made the Hippo truly enjoyable and memorable.
In no particular order, I give many thanks and acknowledge:
-Debbie and Neil Gershman, for lending us the beautiful Inifinti I, which we have rechristened the "Hippo Mobile" (no relation to Mobile, Alabama). It was a true delight to drive it and Ari and I both appreciate your generosity.
-The Parentals in Irvine, for providing us with housing, food, laundry facilities and good times on our Hippo.
-Gurie, for being the ONLY person on this Hippo to prepare a three course meal that was ready for our consumption upon arrival. I still think that Salmon rocked!
-Tony Luca a/k/a Cous Cous, for reserving and generously providing Guest Room 3 for our use in his building in Toronto. It was a delightful place to stay.
-The Crazy One Blessed Be He, for showing us the most beautiful panoramic view this side of the Susquehanna.
-Amber and Hayley, for letting us stay in their house and providing great company in Salt Lake City!
-Info a/k/a Michael Lorberbaum, for helping me realize that Mobile, Alabama is not as backward as some may have us believe, for introducing us to some old houses, for helping me rediscover the value of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, letting us stay in his beautiful apartment, and providing us with - you guessed it - lots of INFO!
-Maurice Michaane, for visiting us while on the Hippo, for providing Science Fiction-related entertainment, for helping us play Kokology, for illuminating the craziness of Las Vegas, for staying in extremely frequent contact with the Hippo, and for artfully providing a list of nearby sushi restaurants when we had an insatiable craving for sushi while in Austin, Texas. That was really really appreciated:)
-Orbitz.com, for providing cheapie cheapie hotel listings throughout this big country. I am consistently amazed and wowed.
-Pui, for providing restful housing and playful canine animals while in our Nation's capital.
-The Kagans, for their valuable friendship and joyous company while in Chicago, their excellent restaurant recommendations, extremely scrumptuous animal crackers and chocolate-covered pretzels, and the best biscotti ever!
-The Liebermans, for allowing us to stay in their humble abode in Minneapolis, a truly beautiful and friendly city.
-Old Woman NPR a/k/a Diane Ream, for entertaining us in many cities throughout our journey
-Demetria Williams, for being a skillful negotiator and helping me finally get a cell phone that works! Now Mistah and I have beautiful baby twins:)
-Jan Carpenter, for activating said Cingular phone
-Mary Cooper, for helping me take care of moving arrangements from New York to Washington, DC.
-Darryl Stein, for helping us remember that liberalism is still alive in well in Southern California.
-Brendan Mockler, for recommending a delightful Kosher restaurant to us while in New Orleans, which we did not have the pleasure of trying, and also for spreading news of our Hippo far and wide throughout Penn State University.
-Jay Shee-Jaw Wang, for allowing us to practice our Hippo before it started, and for helping us learn how to play 20 questions over the phone:)
-The Lieutenant, for being a fantastic Advisory Council member and accompanying us on the last leg of the Hippo
-The Hackners, for offering us a place to stay while in Atlanta.
-Our loyal readers throughout the world, thanks for reading and keeping up with our adventure!
-Melissa Block of NPR, whose name sounds remarkably like "Melissa Blog".
-Highways with bright lights
-The Don Parkway
-The Canadian air mass, which seems to have regretfully found its way down to New York City since we left
-Healthful snacks like dried bananas, pineapples and apples, gummy worms, and Go Go Grahms!
-Dick Gephardt, who illuminated how we have many miserable failures that need to be transformed to resounding successes
And lastly, I want to thank and acknowledge:
-The Mistah Mistah a/k/a Grandma a/k/a Santa a/k/a Rudolph a/k/a Trotsky a/k/a Ari Zona a/k/a College a/k/a Ex-English a/k/a Thumb Rubbing Smacker a/k/a Ari Gershman. You provided hours of fun and entertainment, and were the best travel partner and friend ever. I had so much in your company, and it is regretful this trip has come to an end. I am thankful for the constant reminders of the need to eat a healthful breakfast, healthful snack, go to bed early, call friends frequently, and cherish what you have. Keep on rubbing and keep on smacking:)
I am sure I forgot some people who were helpful and invaluable, so please email me at guymargalith@nyc.rr.com to let me know and so I can ackowledge you:)
Monday, December 15, 2003
Hello world! You're not going to believe this, but I am blogging to you from my home in Harlem, New York! That's right, the Great American Hippo has, regretfully, come to an abrupt end after 6 weeks of travel. Sadly, because the Mistah's grandfather was recently hospitalized, we had to expedite our regression to the Big City. However, we were able to complete almost everything we set out to accomplish.
The Mistah is currently in Queens, and we are no longer keeping each other company at this time. I am shedding many tears. However, there will be an encore to the Hippo which I may or may not fill you in on in this blog entry. We shall see.
Since we last wrote to you, we expedited our regression to New York City by stopping in Charlotte, North Carolina for 1 night, and then driving to Washington, DC. We arrived there on Saturday, and immediately visited two apartments near Dupont Circle.
As you may or may not know, I will be moving to Washington, DC on January 7th and as such needed to find an apartment. Using our friend Pui's apartment as home base, we visited three more apartments on Sunday. By 6pm, I already knew where I wanted to live and dropped a deposit at one of the buildings. If all goes well, my new address will soon be 1750 P Street #708!! Very exciting!
After siginging, we felt it would be best to drive straight back to New York City. After sleeping one night in the Mistah's residence, I returned to Harlem early this afternoon.
In my opinion, I have given very few opinions this blog entry. Therefore, I will declare this blog entry the "factual" end of hippo entry. The Mistah will provide further opinions, as will I, as well as interesting facts and tidbits at a later juncture.
I apologize to our loyal readers who were wondering why we have not posted in many hours. Unfortunately, there was little Internet access to be found in the northeast. Frankly, we had better luck in South Dakota! Craziness....
And with that, I will conclude this blog entry, with the promise of writing more soon. Thanks for everyone who has read up on our journey so far! We will be in touch soon:)
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Hello from Mobile, Alabama! I confess, I didn't blog yesterday because I was tired from all the fun in New Orleans. I apologize profusely, and will try to do better for the small time remaining to this hippo. For the record, and for my own personal safety, I will be unable to speculate as to the Mistah's mysterious absence from the hippo blog for the past day.
Mobile, Alabama has been an interesting place for several reasons. Most importantly, it is the home of the glorious, the knowledgeable, the highly competent, the man with the cleanest apartment this side of the Mason Dixon line: Michael Lorberbaum a/k/a Info, stop # 13. Info has prepared a most southerly welcome for us, including a soft air mattress, a spacious parking lot, and a schedule full of activities.
After a brief sojourn through the state of Mississippi, we entered Alabama "the beautiful", at least according to the sign at the official Alabama Welcome Center on Interstate 10. After arriving at Mobile, Info transported us to a Southern BBQ establishment. At the restaurant, Mistah ordered the "Lodge Salad". I thought about ordering the lodge salad, but felt the Lodge salad may be too large for me. Therefore, I ordered some other chicken product which I can't remember.
Later, we experienced a tour of downtown Mobile, comparable in many ways to lower Manhattan. Am I serious? Maybe.
Today, we experienced some excellent fish products at a local restaurant. Later, we played 20 questions and drove to a local Infiniti dealership to change our oil. It was a very exciting day.
Due to unforseen circumstances in the Big Apple, we are regretfully compelled to shorten the remainder of the Hippo dramatically and to expedite our return to our point of origin. As such, tomorrow we will experience an overnight stay in Charlotte, North Carolina and the following day, an arrival in Washington, DC, the current home of our recently selected President. See, this Hippo was really a plot all along to shadow George W. Bush. All our secrets are revealed.
In DC, I will be searching for an apartment in which to live during my Foreign Service Officer training program. I am fortunate to have the Mistah Mistah accompany me for this endeavor, as his aesthetic and practical instincts are unrivaled. As soon as we find an apartment, we will regress to New York City.
I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Brendan of Port Washington, New York for not trying Kosher Cajun, a kosher restaurant in New Orleans he highly recommendoed. Brendan, next time I'm there, I'll be sure to give it a shot...
This blog entry is dedicated to the Info, to whom I wish the best of luck in his applications to various MBA programs. I am confident he will experience a resounding success. Till then, this is the pape, signing off.
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Hello from N'awlins! Thiz the pope, writing from the ever posh Royal Sonesta Hotel in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana! After multiple attempts to log onto our wireless service, we have achieved succesfulness in this hotel. We had to wade through throngs of party-goers with enticing liquids in their hands to reach this oasis of the rich and famous, but for you, dear blog readers, we are willing to endure difficult and treacherous terrain.
A few days have passed since we last blogged and many things have transpired. We enjoyed an exciting night out in Austin, Texas on the famed 4th Street in downtown. The next day in Austin, we enjoyed the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in the heart of the University of Texas, and were very much moved by the displayes therein. That night, we watched HBO's production of Angels in America, which I highly recommendo to all our blog readers.
We had originally planned to travel to Houston Texas and to stay there yesterday and today. However, we realized that we are running a little short on time, and that the great and holy Shelly Belly, seller of Novos, the illustrious coach, was not going to be present in Houston as we had anticipated. As such, we deleted Houston from our itinerary and proceeded to New Orleans, LA instead. We didn't feel too bad. Afterall, any city that names it's airport after George H.W. Bush can't be that great, right?
So yesterday we arrived in New Orleans and enjoyed some famous gumbo and jambalaya at a local hangout. We strolled down Bourbon street and enjoyed a few beverages. Today, we strolled throughout the quarter, and passed a restful afternoon shopping and sipping cafe au lait at a famous French cafe in the Quarter. Tonight, we will be meeting Ari's fulbright friend Gopi for som brass band. We are all excited!
Tomorrow, we visit Info in Mobile, Alabama! We will stay there for two days, after which we will proceed to Birmingham and either Nashville or Atlanta.
I realize this post has been highly factual. I will leave it to the Mistah Mistah to provide opinion-related information, as well as some cultural observations of worth. Until then, y'all be good now! -P
Saturday, December 06, 2003
Hello America, from the Great and Holy Ramada Limited hotel in Austin, Texas. This hotel, while fantastic, unfortunately does not offer wireless internet, nor the services of the illustrious Andy. However, it does provide free local calls, allowing us to avail ourselves of the great and holy NetZero dial-up connection.
We have recently returned from a fantastic dinner at the World Beat Cafe in the thyroid of Austin, Texas, not far from the University of Texas campus. I consumed Dorrowat while Ari said "Dorro...what?". The Mistah availed himself of the peanut yam fu fu. Don't ask, and I won't tell.
Today's drive from Fort Stockton was relatively easy. We passed through a variety of interesting towns, like Ozona, Sonora, Junction, Fredericksburg, and Johnson City. I would like to call everyone's attention to the fact that Johnson City is the hometown of the famous Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States of America. We, fortuitously, were unable to pass through Midland, Texas, the hometown of the 43rd President of the United States of America. Our sadness was indeed palpable.
We sadly regret news of severe weather in the Big City and Boston. We hope you will all be able to dig out of the snow quickly and safely. We looked very hard, and after careful consideration were able to state that there is indeed no snow in Austin, Texas. We are trying not to gloat. I am pleased to hear that Mayor Bloomberg declared New York City open for business.
I would like to take the opportunity to proclaim that anytime one writes the word "Mexican", one should make sure that word has a capitalized "M". The Mistah has sharply berated me on multiple occasions for writing "mexican food", and not "Mexican food", as it should be. It is very useful to have a professional proofreader on a hippo.
I would like to welcome the Capers of San Diego, California to the loyal readership of the blog. We pray you maintain liberal bathroom access policies in your humble abode.
That is all for today, we are off to enjoy the famed Austin nightlife, and hope to write more tomorrow. Enjoy the snow, wherever you are! -P
Hello fellow Americans! We write to you from the former home of our current selected President, George W. Bush. That's right, we are only 5 blocks from the Texas State Capital in Austin, Texas! Unfortunately, we do not have much time to blog today, as we are late for dinner and we are hungry, but I wanted to post a quick entry to let you know what's up.
Yesterday, we drove through Roswell, New Mexico and stayed last night in Fort Stockton, Texas. We arrived in Austin about two hours ago, and will stay here until Monday morning.
I will try to blog later. Until then, farewell!
-P
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Because we have used up all our available space on both our first and second yahoo photos web sites, we have created a THIRD new photo website. We now have THREE photo sites. Site 1 is dedicated to week 1, and site 2 is dedicated to weeks 2-4 of our journey, and site 3 will be dedicated to all remaining weeks. The links are as follows:
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah - WEEK 1 PHOTOS
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah2 - WEEKS 2-4 PHOTOS
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah3 - WEEK 5+ PHOTOS
We hope you enjoy!
Regards,
The Committee
Good evening everyone. Today was a very restful and introspective day spent in peaceful Santa Fe, New Mexico. I blog to you once again from the fireside at the Park Inn Hotel & Suites, in the company of the ever helpful Andy. The Mistah is currently upstairs doing the laundry, which should be done within the hour.
Today we arose in time to experience the "deluxe" continental breakfast, which was indeed continental as well as deluxe. The Park Inn Hotel & Suites (we must be staying in the hotel part, apparently) provides a waffle iron with pre-prepared batter, which made breakfast here a nice change of pace from cereal bars and yogurt. The fact that I'm eating breakfast at all is a miracle.
After breakfast, we proceeded to the center of town and found convenient and free parking near some famous art galleries. We walked around the city for awhile, ate some authentic mexican food for lunch, and happened upon the Convergence Cafe! After experiencing a convergence, we discovered that the Santa Fe Film Festival is currently taking place in this very city (as opposed to other cities). We quickly found the box office and purchased tickets to the afternoon showing of A Great Wonder and Return to Kandahar, both movies dealing with the plight and experiences of refugees in the Sudan and Afghanistan, respectively. We walked out both movies kind of depressed and sadenned with America and with the state of world affairs. After eating some tex-mex for dinner, we returned to the hotel to sulk.
Tomorrow, we proceed to Fort Stockton, Texas for a one night stay, and plan on being in Austin, Texas, the former home of recently selected President, George W. Bush, on Saturday and Sunday.
We don't know if there is internet in Texas, but we hope we can write more soon. Till then, you are all in our thoughts. -P
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Hello dear readers, from Santa Fe, New Mexico! Today's blog entry is dedicated to the fantastic, amazing, highly talented, kind, friendly, charitable and industrious Andy, a loyal employee of Park Inn Hotel & Suites, where we currently find ourselves residing for the next two nights. Andy was kind enough to fax my Washington, DC room reservation for absolutely $0.00, due to the kindness of his heart. This was much less than Kinko's price of $5 and Harrah's Casino's price of $25. Therefore, Andy has a special place in my heart tonight.
So, too, does the Park Inn Hotel & Suites! We are paying very little for our room, and are receiving many amenities in the process. The hotel comes with free wireless internet in the lobby, of which I am currently availing myself, as well as free local calls and a computer for internet use in the lobby for those who did not bring a laptop. Honestly, who wouldn't bring a laptop across America?! The thought is revolting. The Park Inn also provides a "deluxe" continental breakfast, which I am excited to sample, as well as advanced room-heating technology. Theoretically, they also offer a free shuttle bus to the center of Santa Fe. I am looking forward to seeing how this works out, and will keep you all informed.
After my last entry's praise of Kinkos, I received an urgent notice from Brendan Mockler of Penn State University (not a random hippochondriac). Brendan wanted me to alert all of you to the fact that he believes that "KINKO’S IS THE DEVIL! STAY AWAY FROM KINKO’S IMMEDIATELY!". Brendan was once apparently cursed at quite extensively at Kinko's. In light of his sharp censure and condemnation of Kinko's, I am compelled to revise my previous praise of all Kinko's to praise of the Kinko's off of Flamingo Blvd. in Las Vegas, NV, which provides free Internet access. We may or may not praise other Kinko's that provide free internet access and refrain from cursing at us along the way. Until then, I urge you to enter Kinko's outside of Las Vegas at your own risk.
And now for some factual information. Yesterday, we drove over the Hoover Dam. We believe the Hoover Dam is closely related to the Don Parkway. At the Hoover Dam, we enjoyed the dam bathroom, the dam view, and the dam parking lot, which was dam free. The drive away from the dam was don great, but not like the Don Parkway. Mistah may or many not have observed that the Hoover Dam was built by the same builders of Hoover vacuum clearners.
Later, we eyeballed the Grand Canyon, which only illicited a "woa" from the Mistuh. As you may or may not know, the Mistuh is seldom impressed by natural phenomena, such as world-famous vistas, modern works of engineering, or tall buildings. Instead, his highest praise is reserved for those of you who send him nice emails, call him at 917-657-8122 or email him at pennsmile@yahoo.com. He also will praise those of you who enjoy healthful snacks, go to bed early, and enjoy showering at night.
Today, however, I noted that the Mistuh was more impressed with the Petrified Forest National Park than with any other natural phenomenon we have observed thus far, as he emitted an "uh...pope!" when we came upon a particularly breathtaking vista that we will post shortly. Even the uh pope, however, is dwarfed by the "heeeey!" the Mistah reserves for those who email him frequently. So keep it up all of you!
Today, in addition to seeing the Petrified Forest, we sang songs about frogs, had dinner at a random mexican restaurant in Albuquerque (which is really hard to spell, I believe) and praised Demetria Williams and Jan Carpenter of Cingular Wireless, as well as Mary Cooper from the Department of State. May they all live long and healthy lives. We also shopped at a non-striking Albertsons, and lunched by some old stone logs of some determinate national interest. We called the Shelley Belly of New York City, the maternal parental in Irvine, the Info of Mobile, Alabama, the Jon of Nashville, Tennessee, the Jay of Cambridge on a hot date in Boston, the Maurice of New York City, the Commish Margaret of New York City, and the Appetizer Plate and the Nuchum of Douglaston, New York. We may have called more people, but my phone ran out of batteries and I can't check.
Tomorrow, we plan on enjoying the beautiful scenery and old town happiness of Santa Fe. We also plan on basking in the goodness of Governor Bill Richardson's inspired and enlightened leadership of the good State of New Mexico.
I also vote "YES" on the survey presented to me at a rest stop outside of Santa Fe. The restroom was indeed acceptable.
That is all for now! We will be sure to blog to you tomorrow, hopefully in the company of Andy of Sante Fe. Till then, have a great day!
Monday, December 01, 2003
Good evening dear bloggers, from the Sin City! I write to you tonight from the great and holy Kinko's, right off of the Las Vegas strip. While strolling through the shopping center, we came upon the shocking discovery that Kinkos offers free internet access for customers with laptops! This sure beats gambling, believe you me:)
Yesterday, we arrived in Las Vegas after a tearful farewell from the parentals in the Vine. With loyal blog reader and Advisory Council member Maurice in tow, we explored Vegas from our homebase at Harrah's, right off of the strip. Maurice was quite a talented gambler! He turned $20 into $140 at a blackjack table, and more than paid for his fair share of lodging. We were happy he did so - as bystanders - for when availed ourselves of the free alcoholic beverages available at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino while Maurice was earning his big $$.
Today, we bade farewell to Maurice at the airport, and continued our exploration of various hotel lobbies, casinos, and the Hughes Corporate Center, which we drove through quite extensively on numerous occasions today.
Today I learned that whenever the Mistuh is feeling kind of down or tired, one need simply stop, take a deep breath, and insert carbohydrates. After that, he's as good as new for any blogging activity you could propose.
A shoutout loyal blog readers The Crazy One Blessed Be He and Jay Wang for recent emails letting us know of their status. Crazy, we love our haircuts, so too bad! Jay, we hope you observed National Buy Nothing Day.
Our observance of said holiday was, fortunately, a resounding success by the way.
Hmmm...what else. Honestly, we weren't planning on blogging tonight because we felt tired and the hotel with wireless internet access was too far away, but you guys were in luck we happened upon this Kinkos! In support of Kinkos, you all should patronize your local stores with the same name, except on National Buy Nothing Day, of course.
Tomorrow, we proceed to Arizona and the Grand Canyon, and will spend the night in Falgstaff, Arizona, where we will return to Mountain Standard Time. Aren't you excited? After Flagstaff, we spend a relaxing two nights in Santa Fe, New Mexico, per the recommendation of Jill Stein, Tom Lieberman, and probably live Stock Liz, although I'm not sure if I named everyone who recommended Santa Fe.
Let me also take this opportunity to sharply condemn all Las Vegas hotels on the strip for charging exhorbitant prices for faxes and phone calls. It costs $6 to fax just one page in most hotels on the strip, and to make a LOCAL call in our hotel costs $2.50, just for a connection charge, and $.60 for every additional minute. This also applies to 1-800 numbers. Ari may also express his dismay, but these prices would even make the Defender of the Wharton and Capitalistic Faith cringe.
And now, for a few pages out of the Mistuh's book - some observations about Las Vegas and the past few days:
-Maurice really enjoys Wells Fargo Bank and Jack in the Box. I was happy to provide transportation near some of these landmarks of the West.
-The MGM Grand has a very nice woman working as a waitress near the blackjack table, who gave Mistuh and I beverages even though we weren't gambling. I forget her name, most regrettably.
-In case of sluggishness or fatigue, insert carbohydrates immediately.
-Sometimes, rollaway beds are more comfortable than standard cheeseball hotel beds.
-Kinkos rocks!
-Elderly people who spend all day in front of 25 cent slot machines are kind of scary.
That is all from Vegas! Take care, dear hippochondriacs!
Saturday, November 29, 2003
Good evening, fellow Buy Nothingers, thiz pope, writing to you from our last night in the Vine in Souther California. Tomorrow, we depart the Golden Republican-ruled state for redder and dryer, as well as more sinful pastures in Las Vegas, Nevada. For this portion of the hippo, we are honored to have with us as our temporary guest Maurice Michaane of New York City, New York. Maurice decided to accept our open invitation to all of our loyal readers, advisory council members, and family members to join us on any portion of the Great American Hippo they so desire. Maurice joined us on Friday night, and will depart the Hippo on Monday morning from Las Vegas.
The past two days have been quite eventful. As the only member of the Committee to have seen California, I was proud to show other member(s) of the Committee the remainder of the Southland. Yesterday, we took a driving tour of San Diego, and felt that it was not as great as we had imagined. However, we did enjoy a fantabulous Mexican lunch at Casa de Bandini, an award winning Mexican restaurant.
Last night, we had the pleasure of traveling back in time at the movie Timeline. We wish we could have traveled back in time before we arrived at the theater, because all of Irvine, CA decided to converge at the mall near my house to go to the movies at the exact same time we wanted to see the movie. By the time we made it to the theater, we experienced a great deal of fatigue. Wew!
Today, we traveled north to Los Angeles to see our good friend Laurie, who is a Rabbinical School student at Hebrew Union College. With Laurie, we took a tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills. We unfortunately did not see Brandon Walsh, Whoopi Goldberg, or Tito Puente. We pretended, however, to see Britney Spears. We tried desperately to prevent Maurice from breaking out in song, but we were miserable failures.
And now, dear readers, I must pack. It is my sincere hope that the Mistuh was more witty in his daily entry than I was, for I feel this was a very factual entry. Too bad. Maybe next time. Till then, dear readers, happy trails!
Thursday, November 27, 2003
Good evening, fellow Americans. Tonight, I return from non-blogging purgatory to discuss certain things with our dear readers.
Tonight, while enjoying a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with my parent's good friends and their children and relatives, Darryl Stein of Irvine, California informed us that tomorrow, Friday November 28th, marks National Buy Nothing Day. The purpose of this national day is to protest American consumer culture and, according to Darryl, "neocolonial imperialistic exploitation". I am aware that some blog readers may be opposed to the implications of buying nothing. In fact, some fellow travelers on the Committee may defy National Buy Nothing Day. However, I fully plan of abiding by this noble concept and will protest our consumer culture by buying absolutely zippee doo dah tomorrow. I encourage you to join me in this endeavor, and thank Darryl for bringing this event to my attention. He may or may not receive a prize for his contributions.
Today's dinner conversation also involved some discussion regarding international politics. Indeed, we saw some heated debate concerning America's involvement in Iraq, tax policy in America, a local grocery store strike, and whether the Stein's cat is indeed becoming less antisocial. I am of the firm belief that said cat does not even exist, as I have never seen it. Clearly, this issue is crucial from the standpoint of American foreign policy.
We realize we have blogged infrequently since our arrival in Irvine. This is because we have been vegetating a la candied yams for the past two days. You see, it's very difficult work traveling across a big hippo, and even Committee members need some rest. Yesterday, we ran several errands, and I am proud to sport a new haircut for our trip in the south. I am not sure what kind of haircut is appropriate for southern travel. If any readers have their opinions, please do not hesitate to make them known to us.
Yesterday, we had the opportunity to watch an episode of the O.C. on Fox. I do not know if many people, beside current roommate of America Buffy a/k/a Antwan, have seen this show. Mistah and I concluded the show is overdone and shallow. We mentioned this fact to our fellow dinner guests, who confirmed that Orange County, like the O.C., is also overdone and shallow. I am tempted to agree on several counts.
Currently in several Orange County supermarket chains, employees are on strike in order to secure better health benefits. We have heard much about this strike since our arrival in Southern California. I would like to take this opportunity to praise the striking workers at Albertsons, Ralphs and other supermaket chains, and to priase those consumers, like my mother, who have decided to shop at competing chains where employees are not on strike. According to our guests tonight, Costco, Trader Joes and other competitors are reaping tremendous benefits from the fact that consumers like my mother are shoppping at their stores instead of the stores where employees are striking. That concludes this public praising session.
I have started offering more opinions because of the dearth of exciting facts happening on this end of the country. Oh, I did learn how to count in Korean today, as well as to say my name is Guy. Or rather, Ga-ee, as my name would be in Korean. This is an improvement from "Gaa", which is what my former band director in high school used to call me.
And now that you're bored to tears, I will sign off of the blogspot this evening. Enjoy your turkey day!
Monday, November 24, 2003
Calling all random blog readers! After having been informed through the grapevine that many random people are reading our readers, we would like to let all our readers, especially random readers, that WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
That's right! If you are a random blog reader, meaning we have never met you before, please email us to let us know who you are! We may or may not give you a prize for stepping forward, but we may or may not mention you on the blog as well. Either way, we really want to know who among the planet's 6 billion people is currently reading our blog:)
Please email the pope at guymargalith@nyc.rr.com or the Mistah Mistah at pennsmile@yahoo.com.
I almost forgot to mention- many readers have protested my statement that we have arrived at the Hippo's tuchus. Indeed, many readers had believed that San Francisco was the Hippo's nose, and not the Hippo's tuchus.
Therefore, I submit to our dear readers a poll! Please email pennsmile@yahoo.com your answer to the following question:
After looking at the picture of the Great American Hippo , I believe that San Francisco represents
A) the Hippo's tuchus
B) the Hippo's nose
We will post the results of our poll as soon as the Advisory Council gets off their own tuchusi and starts advising us!:)
Do you know the way to San Jose, dear readers? Well, we sure do! Today we passed through San Jose on our way south to sunny (on paper at least) Southern California. I blog to you tonight from the illustrious Davidson Library at the University of California at Santa Barbara, an institution famous for one Gurie Margalith who attends this school. For those who are scratching their heads, Gurie is my 19-year old brother, currently attending UCSB as a Sophomore, majoring in Psychology and Business Economics with a focus on Accounting, as well as a minor in Phillosophy. I am as impressed as you are.
Before I discuss today, however, I will summarize yesterday's events after my high praise of Kerri and Colleen's apartment. We decided to return to San Francisco, where we indulged in mural eyeballing in the Mission and hummus platter-eating in Dolores Cafe, as well as some Kokology playing. We then had the distinct pleasure of seeing Liz, our sole human live Stock, once again in her home and her neighborhood in eastern San Francisco.
After a restful sleep in Alameda once again, we departed at approximately 9AM through San Jose and onto the Pacific Coast Highway. After beholding breathtaking ocean scenery and narrowly avoiding paying astromically high prices at a small town on the way, we safely arrived in Santa Barbara where we were warmly greeted by Gurie.
After having lived in and visited several college apartments and dormitories, we were not sure what to expect from Gurie in his humle home on a dreamy street in Saint Barbara. I am pleased to report that my parent's chairs, as well as a sparkly clean bathroom, made us happy to have decided to spend the night here.
We were further shocked by the most delicious dinner of salmon, salad and rice that Gurie had prepared for our consumption on arrival. The salmon, with a light braze of teriyaki sauce and lemon dill topping from Trader Joe's, was prepared to perfection and tickled the taste buds. Hats off to Gurie. Imma, you trained him well! He is more than qualified to cook any meal you can think of.
As Gurie's internet connection at home can be accurately described as a malfunctioning miserable failure, Gurie was kind enough to recognize our need to blog to you the day's activities. As an avid blog follower, Gurie was of course also keyed into the fact that you all are very curious to know what we are up to. As such, Gurie provided efficient and speedy transportation to the Davidson Library, a fantastic structure that has met all my blogging needs.
I am pleased to report that our non-human livestock count stands at 8644. Of course, I could be mistaken. I do not take any responsibility should this number be inaccurate.
Tomorrow, we depart for our final destination on the westward portion of our trip: Irvine, California! We will stay in Irvine until Sunday, at which time we will begin our great regression to New York City through the southern portion of this big Republican country of ours.
We have received a complaint from one loyal blog reader that we did not extend adequate coverage to the great and holy state of Minnesota on this blog. I would like to clarify that we did indeed enjoy Minnesota tremendously! Although we experienced our first snow storm in that northern state, our dining was superb and our hosts in that city were extremely welcoming. Indeed, to my knowledge Mistah Grandma holds Minneapolis to be his most favorite city visited thus far on our hippo! The next drink is for you, Minnesota!
That is all for now, dear hipposters! Till tomorrow, in Irvine! -P
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Good afternoon fellow Hipp-o-sters from sunny Alameda, CA! I write to you from the home of Kerri in her spacious, well-kept, incredibly clean, and very comfortable apartment after a very filling breakfast of crepes and lemonade. The Mistah is currently washing dishes, while I do the hard work of blogging to our dear readers what has transpired on our lengthy journey. I'm already breaking a sweat!
Alameda is a small post-industrial and pre-industrial island in San Francisco bay with an unknown hispanic population. (I apologize if some of you do not get our inside jokes, but literally this is true). Yesterday, we awoke to another beautiful day. After hunting through Alameda's military-industrial complex, we found the ferry landing and boarded the ferry to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. The weather was amazing, and I will soon be posting pictures of our scenic journey through the bay, under various bridges, past Alcatraz island, and into San Francisco.
Unfortunately, we were unable to spend most of the day yesterday with Kerri and her sister Colleen, as Colleen accompanied Kerri to her place of employment yesterday. In their absence, Ari and I walked around several San Francisco neighborhoods. We thought we would take the trolley, but unfortunately we were miserable failures in boarding one as they were all full. Instead, we walked all the way from Fisherman's Wharf, through Chinatown, and to Union Square. We are probably much thinner now from climbing all those hills!
We then spent 40 minutes trying to figure out how to take the subway to the Castro. After touring the Castro area, we made our way to the Haight (pronounced "hate"), a hip neighborhood nearby, where we met Kerri, Colleen, and their friend Liz for a delicious thai dinner. Surprisingly, we felt much love in the Haight in the company of our new friend Liz, and were surprised that there was no hate in the Haight. I hate the Haight's hills, which were hard to climb, but I loved the Haight's lack of hate. As you can see, we had a good time last night.
I am proud to announce that yesterday we sighted our first human livestock. Our livestock count currently stands at over 5000, while our live Stock count stands at 1. How can this be? Well, Kerri and Colleen's friend Liz's last name is Stock! To the best of my knowledge, she is quite live, so that would make her a live Stock. We took a picture to illustrate, which should be posted within the next two days.
I am pleased to hear that our readership continues to grow. I am excited to welcome new international readers from Israel, as well as a potential reader from Spain! Welcome to the blog, we hope you enjoy it!
I discovered yesterday that the Mistah procured the nickname of "Grandma" when he was in Korea with Kerri last year. I never knew this. Apparently, Mistah is the Grandma because of his inclination to take care of others in a grandmotherly fashion. I can attest to this, as I have been well taken care of with frequent healthful snacks of banana chips, dried apples, strange cereals containing 5560.4 types of nuts, and of course health food bars. My bedtime of late has also moved back to a healthful 11AM average, and I can attest to the fact that I eat breakfast at Grandma's urging every morning. I submit to the advisory board a proposal to change the name of web address of this blog to PopeGrandma.blogspot.com.
The Grandma and I will attempt to blog more frequently, and we apologize for recently infrequent updates. We promise to do better over the next few weeks, now that we are near Silicon Valley, the home of Ebay!
Today we hope to explore more of the city, this time with Colleen and Kerri. We will blog to you our hill-climbing calorie count as soon as the Committee makes those numbers public. Have a great day, dear hipposters!
Friday, November 21, 2003
Tonight, ladies and gentleman, marks a very special day in the life of the Great American Hippo. Today, for the very first time, the time listed as the posting time of this blog entry actually represents the correct time. For you see, dear bloggers, yesterday we crossed the state line into Nevada and officially entered the Pacific Time Zone. Aren't you as excited as we are?
Today also marked a special occasion, for today we progressed as far west as we will be going on this hippo of ours. Those of you following along on our Great American Hippo map on photos.yahoo.com/popemistah, you will note that today we sit squarely on top of the Hippo's ass in San Francisco! That's right, I write to you tonight from the San Francisco Bay Area. Technically, right now I am in Berkeley, CA only a few feet from the CAL campus. For those of you yet to be initiated, CAL represents the University of California at Berkeley. We are also pleased to report that today we re-entered our first blue state since South Dakota. We are pleased to be in the presence of those who voted for Al Gore.
I am displeased, however, to be located in the same state as a Republican Governor. We had hoped to arrive while Governor Davis was still exercising his just and rightful authority, yet we were too late.
This morning we awoke in Reno (a city with no Internet access, which explains our absence from this blog for a short period of time). We departed early and proceeded through the Sierra Nevada mountains, and beheld the splendor that is Sacramento. But then we remembered the lousy governor, so after eating lunch in the capital of this state, we promptly made our way to San Francisco. We decided to take a lengthy route so that we could drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, which provided an amazing backdrop to our journey.
Tonight, we will be staying with Ari's Fulbright friend Kerri in her home in Alameda, CA. We will be here until Monday morning, at which time we're heading to Santa Barbara! Watch out all you surfer dudes down there.
In my opinion, the coffee shop where I am currently blogging to you smells like tuna fish. In my opinion, that isn't so great, but I am willing to suffer tremendous amounts to blog to you tonight.
This is his Holiness, signing off from sunny California! Farewell, dear readers!
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Hello dear readers from the great state of Utah, the home of the 2002 Winter Olympics, as we were informed when we drove in this afternoon. We write to you tonight from the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Sandy, Utah, not far from the home of Ari's friend Amber. We will be joining her tonight and will be spending the next few days with her.
Today was relatively uneventful, as was last night. Unfortunately, the committee does not have much new to report. We were able to see the new Matrix movie last night, and were not very impressed. We were impressed, however, that the movie theater offers wine in the theater as a healthful beverage. We were also impressed that we were the only ones in the theater watching the Matrix.
I am also pleased to inform you that I sighted my first Idaho potato last night at dinner. Mistuh and I shared this piece of Americana in its baked form, and can report it tastes exactly the same as potatoes in New York City.
That is all for now, dear readers. Please enjoy our new upload photos!:
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah - WEEK 1 PHOTOS
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah2 - WEEK 2 PHOTOS
Hello dear readers, I write to you today from the Courtyard Marriott at Sandy, Utah to give you the following important information:
Because we have used up all our available space on yahoo photos, we have created a new photo website. We now have TWO photo sites. Site 1 is dedicated to week 1, and site 2 is dedicated to week 2 of our journey. The links are as follows:
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah - WEEK 1 PHOTOS
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah2 - WEEK 2 PHOTOS
We will fill up the second web site as much as can and will create additional web sites as necessary. Because we are now in Utah, a state with advanced Internet technology, we can now upload these pictures. We hope you enjoy! Email us if you have any problem accessing the new pictures.
Regards,
The Committee
Monday, November 17, 2003
Hello dear International readers! I have been recently informed that our blog is being read by both foreign and domestic audiences. I am greatly honored that we have people in Israel, Great Britain, France and Canada all reading our blog entries! If anyone else is reading this blog and lives in a foreign country, please let us know! We will praise you mightily on this blog.
I am also pleased to welcome readers from Penn State University. We were not aware that our blog reached even the deepest reaches of rural Pennsylvania.
Today I write to you from the Ketchum Community Library, which has a 30 minute only Internet access policy if people are waiting in line to use a computer. Since I've already utilized all 30 of my minutes reading your great emails, I apologize if I need to cut this blog posting unduly short.
Honestly, I think we had no intention of blogging you today. Ketchum Idaho is even more beautiful than Bozeman, MT. It lies in the heart of the Sun Valley area, in the dead center of the state of Idaho. Normally, it is a busy ski or hiking town. However, we arrived at an awkward time of year, since there is not enough snow on the ground to ski and there is too much snow to hike. Therefore, we find ourselves the sole occupants of the Clarion Inn in the HEART of Ketchum, ID, with little else to do except relax by the Clarion's fireplace, watch the Matrix, and blog to you at the library, only a 2 minute walk from our hotel. Aren't you thankful?
Regretably, I have yet to confirm that there is indeed Ketchup in Ketchum. I will keep my eyes peeled. In addition, we have yet to try Idaho potatoes. I don't know where they can grow these mythical potatoes, everywhere we passed yesterday was snowed in, or too barren to grow anything. Maybe they have secret underground passageways in Idaho where they grow their potatoes.
While we relax, put up our feet by the fireplace, build snowmen, and hunt for ketchup for our potatoes, we vaguely remember that today is Monday and is indeed a day of hard work and no play for many of our dear readers. We highly recommendo you come to Ketchum to relax, during the ski season, when your hotel room may actually be worth the price:)
Tomorrow, we will be heading to points south, this time to the Mormon bastion of Salt Lake City. We are preparing ourselves for the experience, believe you me. In SLC, we will stay with Ari's Fulbright friend, Amber (pronounced Am-buh). After that, we will drive through Nevada, past Sacramento, where we may or may not see the new governor, and then onto our furthest point west: San Francisco. From then on out, it's technically heading back east.
I have just been informed that someone on the waiting list has been asked to displace me on illustrious "Internet Computer #6" in Ketchum, ID. I am awed that such an experience can take place in Idaho. I am so much in awe, I will indeed surrender my computer. And if I'm making no sense, blame it on the lack of oxygen in Idaho.
Till then, dear national and international readers, be well and stay warm!
-P
Saturday, November 15, 2003
The Committee of the Great American Hippo thanks all of its readers who have submitted applications for the Advisory Council. Regretfully, we are no longer accepting applications for the Advisory Council at this time as all positions have been filled.
The Committee is proud to nominate Adam Lubow of Tannersville, New York to the Advisory Council. Adam brings an extensive Spanish language vocabulary to the Committee, which will assist us in no way at all when we are in the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Nevertheless, the Committee is pleased to welcome Adam.
The Committee is also pleased to welcome Jay Wang of Cambridge, Massachusetts to the advisory Council. Jay brings an extensive ability to budget time and money to the Committee, as well as special recommendations for nightlife activities in the states of Idaho and Wyoming. Having hosted the Committee on its last road trip outside of the Great American Hippo, Jay understands exactly what is required to truly advise the Committee on its journey. Welcome, Jay.
Thank you to all our readers who submitted applications! We look forward to fantastic advice from our dear Advisory Council, especially on cheap hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip. This, so far, seems to be our most immediate concern. Get to work, all of you!:)
Good afternoon, dear readers. Today we find ourselves hijacking yet another University library for the purposes of blogging. You may have noticed a conspicuous absence of blogging yesterday. We had travelled very far from the state of South Dakota to Boseman, Montana - nearly 550 miles in one day.
Boseman, MT is a moderately small town in the southern portion of the middle of Montana. The scenery here is simply spectacular. The town is bordered on all sides by mountains, and two ski resorts lie in close proximity. I am pleased to report that the manager of the Ramada Inn where we are staying was "greatly honored" that we had chosen her hotel for our stay in Boseman. At least, that's what she wrote on the fancy laminated note left on our beds.
Yesterday on our way to Montana we stopped at Devils Tower National Monument. Those of you who have seen the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind may recognize the pictures of this big rock once we post them. The famous scene with the flying saucer was filmed at Devils Tower. Our attempts to circumnavigate the tower on foot were foiled, however, due to slippery ice lining the hiking trail. In apparent compensation for this dissapointment, the National Park Service provided two pleasant Wisconsinites out of thin air to take our pictures. We missed Wisconsin very much, and thanked the Park Service for their generous apparition.
Later in the day, we drove through Wyoming and were pleased to quickly depart. In Montana, we stopped briefly at the Little Bighorn Battlefiled Memorial, where one can still see exactly where Custer made his famous last stand. We drove an additional three hours to Boseman, MT.
Today, we took a break! We woke up late and Mistuh and I decided to engage in different activities during the early afternoon hours. I drove 40 miles to Pleasant Valley, Montana to behold world-famous mountian scenery just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Mistuh decided to go shopping. While I was driving back through Main St., Boseman, I was shocked to find Ari walking down the street with shopping bags in hand. Since this was very much out of character for Ari, I offered him a ride to U of MT, where we now sit.
Montana is much warmer than I thought. It is only 45 degrees outside. However, there is a lot of snow on the ground that has not melted, which tells me we better get out of here fast before any more of that snow traps us here. It is very ominous to be driving down a major interstate highway and to pass barricades and yellow lights that when flashing, tell one to "Continue No Further, Return to Previous Town" because of snow. Luckily, no road we have traversed has been closed so far.
Tomorrow, we depart Montana and proceed to Ketchum, Idaho. Maybe Ketchum will provide ketchup to go with their famous potatoes. Or maybe because probably other people have made fun of it, they just call ketchup ketchum in Ketchum. The answer to this, and other life mysteries, awaits our dear blog readers in the next entries.
Till then, a tip of the ol' cowboy hat and a kick of our shiny spurs to you, dear readers.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Hello America! This is the Pope again, reporting to you live from Rapid City, South Dakota, a small pre-industrial town with no hispanic population. Today's activities were a change of pace from our standard driving across hundreds of miles of territory. We woke up relatively late and headed off to Keystone, South Dakota. From there, it was a short drive to see Mount Rushmore. It was a truly gorgeous day, so the four heads stood out even more with the beautiful blue sky. Later, we progressed to Crazy Horse Monument.
I bet only some of you know that Mt. Rushmore, and Crazy Horse Monument, were carved out of the mountain using dynamite. Crazy Horse, a monument to the famous Native American leader, is not yet finished. We had the great luck of witnessing a dynamite blast at the Crazy Horse sight, which was very exciting.
Throughout our travels today, we noticed that we were among the very few tourists in the area. Apparently, nobody comes to South Dakota or Wymoing during the early Winter months, so we basically had all the parks to ourselves today.
Later, we drove to Wind Cave National Park and were fortunate to make it just in time for the last tour of the Wind Cave that day. The Wind Cave is an extremely large cave formation hundreds of feet below the ground in Southwestern South Dakota. Mistah, myself and one other woman were the only people on the tour given by the National Park Service.
Today we would like to notify you of a change in our travel plans for the next few days. Due to road closures and possible wintry conditions near Yellowstone National Park, we have decided to bypass our three night stay in the State of Wyoming. Instead, we will now be proceeding to Boseman, Montana for a two night relaxing stay. Some of you who have seen the movie A River Runs Through It may be familiar with the scenery we will see in Boseman, as the movie was filmed in that city. We are looking forward to it.
After Boseman, we will progress through the western border of Yellowstone National Park on the Idaho side, all the way to Ketchum, Idaho, a small resort town four hours north of Salt Lake City. On Tuesday morning, we will resume our regularly scheduled itinerary and progress to Salt Lake City, and then on to Nevada and California.
We are saddened to hear about the severe weather conditions our dear readers may have experienced in the Northeast and in California. We are pleased to report that we are high and dry in South Dakota, and look forward to another stunningly beautiful clear sunny warm day tomorrow.
Ari, in my opinion, has left me to report on our South Dakota experience for today. I share your hope that he will resume reporting our progress soon, as I'm sure I'm missing out on important details.
For those keeping track, our Livestock Count continues to rise. It now stands over 1000, although I don't have the exact number in front of me because we left the paper in the car and it's too darn cold to go outside. Yes, we know we're lazy.
Today we were able to sight many non-livestock animals. At Mount Rushmore, we made friends with a mountain goat who decided to walk us out of the parking lot and to the main highway. We weren't able to ask it its name before we departed. At Crazy Horse, we made friends with Thunder the cat. Or rather, Ari made friends with Thunder. I was the official photopher for that momentous occasion. In Wind Cave national park, we had to drive carefully to avoid running over thousands of field mice roaming the praries. We also narrowly missed having to wait for wild bison to cross the road on our way back to Rapid City.
All in all, it has been a really exciting stay in South Dakota. Tomorrow, it's off to Republican Red State lands Wyoming and Montana. If we survive, we will be sure to report our progress. Till then, fellow compatriots! -P
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Hello from the the state with Famous Faces with Great Places, the long and narrow state of South Dakota! Miraculously, we are able to blog to you tonight utilizing the wonderful powers of NetZero and the RoadKill Inn's free local calling promotion. The RoadKill Inn, Imma, is not really called the RoadKill Inn of course, it's the Roadway Inn, but from henceforth we shall call it the RoadKill Inn.
I will start off with some public service announcements tonight. First, the Blogspot web site only provides a few days in the past of history when you first load the page. To see everything we have blogged this month, please click on the Archive link for 11/01 through 11/30. Secondly, we will be unable to upload photos until we reach Salt Lake City due to Internet restrictions. Thirdly, cell phone service in the middle of buffalobill america seems to be spotty at best. We will be unreachable by cell phone. When we reach Salt Lake City, or maybe even sooner, we will be available once again.
Today was a very long driving day. We left the Liebermans at around 9AM, drove through rural Minnesota and a very strong snowstorm. However, we quickly pierced through the storm and found ourselves in South Dakota with 350 miles ahead of us until we reached the other side of the state. On the way, we visited Badlands National Park to see some truly stunning natural rock formations. Nightfall fell as we were driving through the park, and we were able to see one of the most beautiful and star-filled night skies I can remember.
Not to be outdone, here are some of my opinions of our trip thus far:
1. I am a big fan of dried bananas. I will praise the Department of Homeland Security for not confiscating my bananas when we crossed from Canada.
2. Dried bananas are a pleasant snack to eat, but they leave a powdery residue on your fingers. Dried apples are also pleasant to eat, but they leave a nasty aftertaste. Kit Kat is pleasant to eat, but you feel like a pig afterwards, especially if you have a 10 hour drive ahead of you. We will refer this problem to the Advisory Council for consideration.
3. The Livestock Count now stands at 967, having jumped more than 800 today alone. Apparently, there are a lot of cattle and horses in South Dakota. I almost ate one for dinner instead. If I did, however, we don't think this would lower the livestock count in South Dakota, since we are only counting witnessed livestock, not all living livestock. This is a deep philosophical question only two guys driving for 10 hours through South Dakota can consider.
4. Rush Limbaugh is lousy. We could barely listen to Rush for more than 2 minutes today before almost running off the road. We settled for Dances with Wolves instead. Yes, there is a difference.
5. Rapid City, South Dakota is a big city! They have a Chilis, Fuddruckers, Target, a mall, and lots of gas stations. However, they have no synagogues.
6. We are going to probably change our plans soon once we near Yellowstone National Park. Due to winter road closures in the park, we may detour through Montana and Idaho instead. Keep posted to see where in the world you'll find Pope & Mistah.
That's all for tonight! Tomorrow- Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse National Monument, Black Hills National Forest, and maybe a Wind Cave. Keep warm, America! -P
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Hello Minneapolis! I believe that the Mary Tyler Moore Show took place in Minneapolis, but I still to meet Lous, Roda, Mary and the gang. Maybe you'll see them and let us know. I write to you from uptown Minneapolis, Minnesota at the conclusion of a long day of driving from Chicago. Not too much happened to us today, except for a very peaceful day of driving through some of Illinois, a good part of Wisconsin, and a very teeny tiny part of Minnesota.
Today, we crossed the Mississippi river for the first of two times during our journey. Unfortunately, we crossed the river at night, and my attempts to photograph it through the car window resulted in a glaring miserable failure. Perhaps the next time we cross the river in New Orleans I will be a resounding success.
Today's most exciting activity took place in Madison, Wisconsin, where Mistah and I stopped two finish our Quizno's sandwiches we had purchased the previous day. The Canadian air must still be fresh in our cooler, because the sandiwiches tasted about the same as they did in Illinois.
We stopped at the University of Wisconsin, Madison campus for lunch and pretened to be U of W students as we strode into the Rathskeller, apparently a popular eating establishment in this University. To make sure no one suspected us, we struck up a conversation about a fascinating lecture in Wisconsin history we had just attended with the mythical professor Finklestein. Later, Mistah read the Daily Chronicle, the newspaper at the University, and commented knowingly on the fact that a recent lecture given at the University by some famous person that we now can't recall.
Unfortunately, our cover was blown because we were mesmerized by the beautiful scenery of the campus, which lies on the shores of a large lake, and proceeded to take numerous pictures. It was difficult to pretend to be tourists standing by our New York State vehicle. I'm sure we fooled many Wisconsinites today.
Tonight we will be staying at the home of the Liebermans, relatives of my good friends in the great State of California. We eagerly await seeing both the Liebermans and Neudorfs on this Great American Hippo.
Since we must arrive at the Liebermans at a reasonable hour, I will now sign off and allow the Mistah Mistah to use this computer for blogging purposes. You audience members probably have no idea how much this blog has taken over our lives at this point. Maybe a lack of Internet access in South Dakota will allow us to go into withdrawal.
Tomorrow, we may or may not blog you from Rapid City, South Dakota. Jed Gross, we're thinking of you!:)
Monday, November 10, 2003
Hello fellow Bloggers. I am delaying sleep before our long trip West to announce a last minute submission and nomination to the Advisory Council of the illustratious Committee. The Committee, meeting in extraordinary session outside of normal sleeping hours, is proud to announce the nomination of one Rachel L. Gershman of Waltham, Massachusetts to the Advisory Council. Rachel a/k/a the Lieutenant brings excitement and constant praise for our blogging endeavors to the Advisory Council, having kept in constant touch with members of the Committee on a regular basis since their departure from Big Apple. The Committee looks forward to her useful contributions to our adventure.
And now, to Minnesota!
The Committee is proud to announce the nomination of two individuals to its illustrious Advisory Council. After careful deliberations, and after considering the numerous qualifications of those who applied, and of course never once even thinking about possible financial resources of the applicants, we have come to a well-considered initial nominations to the Advisory Council.
The Committee is proud to welcome Aviram Margalith, of Irvine, California to the Advisory Council. Aviram brings years of experience to the Council, including deep concern for cold weather climates and snow the Committee may encounter (but has fortunately not yet encountered) on its lengthy journey. Due to his extensive experience, and the Committee's desire that Aviram (a/k/a abba) also participate actively in the blogging of this trip, the Commitee will award Aviram 3.487 seats on the Council. Welcome, Abba.
The Committee is also proud to nominate Maurice Michaane of New York City, New York to the advisory Council. Maurice brings extensive text messaging experience to the Council, having been clocked using the cell phone keypad at more than 10 letters per second. Maurice brings extensive political and legal experience to the Council, and will be able to extricate members of the Committee from any legal troubles they may encounter upon passing through uncharted reaches of the Country. Welcome, Maurice.
The Committee would like to conclude this public service announcement by encouraging others to apply to the Advisory Council. With many seats available, many of you may still be able to participate in an advisory capacity. Resumes may be text messaged to Mistah Mistah at any juncture.
-The Committee
Good evening America! This is the holy see, emailing you from Merav Kushner's glorious apartment complex near Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illionois, the Land of Lincoln. Today's blog entry comes to you courtesy of NetZero.com, which I highly recommendo. We were wondering how we would satiate the thirst of our dear readers for the blog this evening, and while hunting on my computer I realized I had never uninstalled netzero, which provides free Internet service. So while the connection is too slow to upload pictures, we are still able to blog away. Blog blog blog blog blog...doesn't it have a certain ring to it?
Today's day was rather lengthy and tiring, yet exciting as always. I started my day with hardcore negotiations with Ms. Demetria Williams of Cingular Wireless. Upon complaining that my phone has been experiencing problems throughout my trip, she informed me that Cingular customers from New York are currently experiencing problems roaming. After informing her that I was making the call from Ari's phone, which also uses Cingular Wireless, she informed me the problem was limited to New York customers who just happened to have my particular brand of phone. On previous occasions, Cingular had informed me that the problem was to a localized area in upstate New York, or due to a nationwide GSM outage. In other words, they kept making things up. This was unacceptable.
So I utilized my Wharton School knowledge and began hardcore negotiations to fix the problem. I am proud to say my professors would be proud: I was able to arrange for a new phone to be delivered to me in California (that's right, Imma! Please keep it safe until we get there!:)), as well as extra minutes and a refund of a month's connection charges. I may or may not begin an alternate blog for negotiation lessons, if you are interested.
Having negotiated the wilds of Cingular Wireless, we negotiated the intracasies of the Chicago bus system. We explored downtown while heading to the Shedd aquarium, where we spent a good deal of the afternoon looking at various aquatic creatures. Despite the fact that we have been offered extensive nautical and aquatic adventures once we reach the state of California by one Gur I. Margalith, we availed ourselves of the same opportunities in the Shedd, minus the surfing of course.
All those fish made us hungry for sushi, but when we met Ari's fulbright friend for dinner, all that we could find open downtown was the Corner Bakery. Our dinner consisted of 90% bread and 10% miscellaneous. The rest, I can't remember right now.
We then said goodbye to the Kagans with some Kagan Biscotti, chocolate covered pretzels, and Herbal Lemon Zest tea prepared by the famous Samantha Jones of BearingPoint consulting, who bears a striking resemblence to Merav S. Kushner.
For those who may have been uninformed, Merav and David are called the Kagans because they will shortly be wed. Because they did not express strong interest in creating an alternate blog to track their exciting lives, I am going to take the initiative of letting all our dear readers know that today the Kagans visited a photographer of high repute, although it remains to be seen whether said photographer will be chosen for their wedding.
On another side note, careful readers may note that Ari's (a/k/a the Mistah's) postings are proofread and thus, contains very few gramatical and spelling errors. I, on the other hand, prefer to just blurt out whatever comes into my brain, and naturally, I have no spell check in the hippocampus. I believe I may have learned from David Kagan what that actually is at some point. I will spare our dear readers from my posting an additional contest to define a Hippocampus. We all have access to dictionary.com:)
Per Neil Gershman's advice, we tried to look extra beautiful for the day's pictures. Hopefully, you will all be able to see them soon. Accolades go out to Maurice from NYC, who became the very first blog reader to request a picture from the Committee. The Committee thanks Maurice for his attentive attention to our itinerary, and will be happy to oblige his request upon the next upload of our pictures to http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah.
Tomorrow, we awake bright and early for our long hard blog out to Minneapolis. We look forward to our next post, from the northernmost point of our trip thus far. After that, we plan to depart for points west such as South Dakota and Wyoming. Please be aware that Internet service may be spotty at times in the great plains and rocky mountain regions of our country, and that we will try our best to blog as often as possible. Unlike Cingular Wireless, we have our users interests strongly at heart and value your continuing support:).
Till then, this is the Pontiff, signing off from Chicago.
Sunday, November 09, 2003
Hello fellow blog-lovers. As you may or may not already know, we are writing to you tonight from Briar Place, a beautiful road filled with out-of-state license plate in the heart of northern Chicago. This evening, while returning from dinner with our good friends Merav and David, we were able to sight no fewer than 8 out-of-state license plates on this very block. We are thrilled to increase our collection of out-of-state license sightings.
Today's activities found us leaving Michigan, passing through Indiana, the crossroads of America, and entering Illinois, the Land of Lincoln. It was a light day, filled with the enjoyment of seein our good friends the Kagans once again.
Stayin with the Kagans is always a very special experiene for me. Their bedrooms are always a place where good luck flows and memories are made. You may be getting the wrong idea. Antwan, I know you are. When I was studying for the Foreign Service Written Examination, Merav offered me her bed in New York, so that I could be rested before taking the exam near her apartment the next day. After I passed the Written exam, David offered me his bed in Chicago, where I was to take the Oral Examination. I passed both exams with flying colors, and I believe the Kagans' beds are directly correlated to my success. I wonder if they use Sealy's? 1-800 MATTRESS? The world may never know.
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a restful day in Chicago, filled with such relaxing activities as seeing 4 different friends, yelling at Cingular Wireless for my continuing lack of phone coverage, blogging some more for our dear readers, and preparing for our long hard blog out west.
We are thrilled to have the honor of staying with relatives of my family's dear friends in Minneapolis: the Liebermans. We eagerly await our arrival in the northern tundra lands. Our dog sleds are prepared, our provisions will be stocked, and our antifreeze is ready. However, we first must experience one more day of the Windy City.
Before I sign off for today, I would like to acknowledge several items. A special congratulations to Neil Gershman of Douglaston, NY, for correctly and accurately defining Consanguineous- (kon sang gwin' e us) descended from the same parent or ancestor; related by blood. Neil may or may not receive a prize for his helpful definition.
The same Neil of Douglaston must have been on a role last night, for he also met an additional challenge posted to our blog readers. We had asked for a legal waiver to provide to individuals of whom we have taken a picture. Neil provided the following information: "model release not necessary for editorial photos, a model release would only be necessary for commercial use anyone walking down the street is fair game for news people, that's why you should always look good." We know are more relaxed knowing we will not be sued for providing pictures for your enjoyment. Thank you Neil! Your prize may or may not be awarded at the conclusion of our trip.
Today's livestock count (LC) increased for the first time since rural New York State. It now stands at 86. Thank you, oh horsedrawn carriage, which was sighted this evening on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
Till tomorrow, good night!
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Hello friends! This is Guy writing to you tonight from the great and holy University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Shapiro Undergraduate library! The Shapiro library far exceeds Steinberg-Dietrich Hall of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, in that it offers free internet access to whomever walks in the door. In my opinion, the University of Michigan, despite being extremely cold, is very open and friendly. The Wharton School, including its Defender and and all its defenders, should all learn from the inclusive policies of the Shapiro Undergraduate Library.
Today was a very cold day. According to a random building in Ann Arbor, the temperature is currently 29 degrees. I tend to trust random buildings as they have little incentive to lie. The weather channel predicted heavy snow today. While I did experience my first time ever driving in snow, said snow storm barely lasted five minutes. In the future, I will check to see if I can get my weather reports from random buildings in Michigan.
Today's activities involved a lot of driving, a lot of eating, and some crossing of international borders. The drive from Toronto to Ann Arbor was relatively short, and we discovered that fewer people have a desire to enter America from Ontario as people want to enter Canada from New York State. I think my last statement made no sense. Oh well.
We were harshly interrogated by a nice midwestern Customs official upon crossing the border in Detroit. she was concerned about the nature of our fruits and vegetables. Anticipating problems with the importation of our one remaining banana into the United States, and not trusting in the all-healing power of NAFTA, we decided to stop in a random farm road in Ontario so that Ari could finish off the banana. Fortunately, the woman customs official was not overly concerned that my extensive supply of dried banana chips, which is too extensive to consume in a backroad in Ontario, posed a threat to national security. So now, dear readers, we are still in full posession of all our banana chips. I know you were greatly concerned.
Today I have been experiencing problems with my Cingular phone. I believe this does not bode well for future voice communication in America, and I am hoping Cingular Wireless resolves their problems promptly so that I can talk to all our wonderful audience members.
I have but one complaint about the computer terminals at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library at the University of Michigan: they do not offer chairs in which one can sit while safely uploading a blog entry. This computer, we just discovered, blocks access to yahoo's mail service. If I had my digital camera, this would preclude me from uploading my pictures to share with you. Fortunately, I do not have to contend with such a situation, as I left my camera in our hotel, located just minutes from the U of M campus.
At dinner tonight in a vegetarian restaurant popular with the locals, Ari and I spent a great deal of time staring at a big map of the USA that was posted on the wall. We were fascinated by the large extent of our journey, and how little we have progressed thus far. Still, it feels like I've come a very long way from Harlem, NYC.
Tomorrow, we will wake up early and progress to Chicago. There, we will spend three fun-filled days with our good friends, the Kagans, as well as visit friends of Fulbright and Urban Fellow ancestry. If these friends are reading this now, we hope you are as excited as we are!
Good night America!
Friday, November 07, 2003
Hello dear readers, from our third day in the great frigid country of Canada. Today, we found ourselves waking up to our first beautiful day on our trip. The skies above the center of Toronto were a crisp clear blue. One of the first things I did this morning was to step out onto our balcony (yes, our guest suite in Cous Cous's apartment includes a balcony - aren't you jealous?). After basking in the perfect guy weather minus 40 degrees (fahrenheit, take that Canada!), I checked on the status of our cooler.
A little background for our readers: the Gershman family was kind enough to lend to us the services of their cooler on our journey so that we may store perishable items such as turkey, yogurt, cheese, and other sundry items. As our trip progressed, we were concerned that these items may go bad and spoil should the temperature inside the cooler be too high. Therefore, last night, we made use of one of Canada's most plentiful natural commodities: cold air. We decided to leave our cooler open to the elements on our balcony overnight. This morning, I was pleased to note that our ice pack and the contents of the cooler were at a lower temperature than the previous day. Canadian authorities may want to use us in their publications, because we will now readily praise Canada's cold climate.
Of course, this euphoria wore off as the day progressed. After breakfasting on recently rechilled yogurt, we sojourned through the crowded streets of Toronto on this beautiful Friday morning. However, a strong gust soon englufed us and before we knew it, innocent passersby were assaulted by small air particulants and dust blown by the strong wind. We promptly took refuge in a nearby food concourse, and wrote down the experience on a pad of paper so that we could remember to recount this horrific experience to our dear readers (see accompanying photo on the yahoo page!).
But, my mood quickly improved as I realized how open Canada seems to be towards American Credit Cards. Not only does Canada accept credit cards at muni-meter machines and most stores and restuarants, but their pay phones also readily accept credit cards! I was most pleased at this turn of events. In my opinion, Canada may be more accepting of credit cards, but they still have room for improvement. Our efforts to use said method of delayed payment were stymied at the Canadian post office, subway station, toll booths and post card stores. Sadly, we were forced to surrender our Canadian cash, which still feels like Monopoly money to us.
Later in the day, as you may learn from Ari, we took a brief journey towards the northern suburbs of Toronto to visit Ari's great Aunt and Uncle. To arrive at this destination, we made use of my navigation software on my laptop. This software recommended we make use of the Don Valley parkway, a large highway that runs through Toronto. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that many other individuals also had relatives to visit in northern Toronto, and we experienced heavy traffic. At this juncture, we took great pleasure in noting that the Don Valley Parkway would be pronounced exactly the same as a mythical "Darn Valley Parkway" in New York City. Maybe you had to be there, but the Darn Valley parkway was just too darned slow for us speedy northeasterners. Darn it!
During our long wait on the Darn parkway, I learned a new word: consanguineous. Thanks to Cous Cous, we were able to engage in deep dialog on the nature of this word, as well as the difference between consanguineous relationships in New York versus Canada. To the reader that successfuly provides to us the dictionary definition of this word, we may or may not award a prize at the conclusion of our journey.
I would like to announce that Jenny from the DOT, who may or may not be from the block, may or may not receive an award for being the very first person, to our knowledge, to have been referred to this blog by an official blog audience member. Jenny, it's great to know you're reading this blog and yes, I love you too! I would like to encourage all our readers to spread the word about this blog far and wide, for the Great American Hippo represents the deepest and most profound experiences we are all looking for on this Earth, no doubt.
Tomorrow, I am very excited to return to America. As much as I liked Canada's liberal credit card (and social) policies, and as much as I enjoyed hearing the natives speak in their unique accent (eh?), it will be good to exchange our Canadian currency for good old American greenbacks, even the funky new $20 bills. Looking at the Great American Hippo, we realize we have barely started our journey, and that it really is a big wide country. We are looking forward to arriving in Ann Arbor sometime near evening. For our Chicago audience, we are rapidly approaching your position, and soon, very soon indeed, you too will be famous like our friends Cous Cous and the Crazy One Blessed Be He.
For legally-minded audience members, we realized today that the pictures of random individuals and close friends we are posting on the internet may open us to liability. At the current time, we do not require people to sign waivers allowing us to post their likeness on the Internet. We may or may not award a prize to the loyal audience member that provides us with such a waiver that we can give to people we take pictures of, in order to cover our asses:)
To date, the committee has only received ONE application for its advisory council! We are deeply disappointed at this response and thus are extending the deadline. We know some of you would be PERFECT for the job, and we really do need advice sometimes. Remember, you may or may not receive a prize:)
Thanks again to those of you sending us feedback via email, voicemail and text messaging. We love you dearly.
From Toronto, signing off-
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Hello from Toronto! I am currently writing to you from the home of one our FRA's (Former Roommates of America), Tony Yeung a/k/a Tony Luka a/k/a Luka a/k/a Cous Cous. Cous Cous is currently studying at the University of Toronto in an MD/Ph.D. program. From the looks of his apartment, he is indeed quite busy. Speaking of Cous Cous's apartment, I am very impressed with the amenities in his building. We are staying in a guest room facility in the heart Toronto only 14 floors below the very room where Cous Cous sleeps every night.
I believe Ari will be recounting the generalities of the day's experiences, as well as the fact that our photo site now works (http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah). I also believe he is revealing exciting information concerning the title of our trip.
Along the theme of the title of our trip, today in Toronto I had the unique honor of visiting Toronto's CN Tower, the world's tallest free-standing structure. CN Tower contains a unique glass floor section, whereby individuals may pay very high prices to stand on the glass floor. As you stand on the floor, you have the sensation of literally standing on thin air hundreds of meters above the ground. A photo has been posted to illustrate this unique Canadian phenomenon.
Today, while parking in Chinatown for a wonderful lunch, I had the delightful pleasure of utilizing my first muni-meter machines. Now of course, my Department of Transportation friends in the audience will appreciate the fact that I have never utillized muni-meter technology. Non-DOT audience members may be wondering what is a muni-meter. It is advanced parking meter technology that allows people to park their cars anywhere along a designated block face, and thereafter purchase a ticket from a machine located on that block face for a given amount of time. The ticket is then displayed on the dashboard of the vehicle and provides information to enforcement officials as to how much time remains to park at the given blockface. Muni-meters are a step above parking meters, as they allow more cars to park on a given blockface than would otherwise be possible.
Unlike New York City, however, Canada's muni-meter's are far superior in that they take major credit cards as payment. For innocent Americans unfamiliar with foreign Canadian currency, this proved very useful. Transportation professionals in the audience, please take note of the advanced position of your Canadian counterparts:)
Speaking of Great American Hippos, I was informed at the CN Tower that the glass floor was designed to support 18 hippos at the same time. This was undoubtedly meant to alleviate any fear one may face from standing on glass over much air. I found this amusing, yet was a miserable failure in taking a picture of the informative sign informing me of this fact. Hippos are indeed wonderful creatures.
Today we unfortunately sighted no livestock. To my knowledge, livestock may be very rare in the heart of Toronto in the year 2003.
Apparently, Cingular Wireless does not consider Canada as part of America. Therefore, to conserve on roaming charges, I will be using my phone sparingly, if at all, until we return to the United States on Saturday. If I owe you a phone call, I will do so at that time. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Till next time (and thank you Cous Cous for your FANTASTIC blindingly-fast wireless Internet connection!!):)
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
The committee is proud to announce that it is forming the official Great American Hippo Advisory Council. This council will be formed to advise members of the committee currently engaged in the Great America Hippo and to provide thoughts and opinions on ways to most effectively maximize the experience of the Great American Hippo. Applications are available on a first come first serve basis by emailing a committee member of your choosing.
Successful applicants should have at least 2 days of cross-country (or cross-city) travel experience, having successfully booked out of state hotel accommodations in the past. Applicants should demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the English language, although French and Spanish or Klingon may be useful should the committee find itself traveling through uncharted space or time. Advisory Council applicants should be prepared to work for little to no pay, as the resources of the committee are limited pending the conclusion of potential activities perfectly legal in Nevada and select Native American Reservations. A gift of appreciation may or may not be offered depending upon successful service at the conclusion of the Great American Hippo.
The committee eagerly awaits your resume and a cover letter and thanks you in advance for your willingness to participate.
Hello from the red light district of Niagara Falls! I bet you did not know that Niagara Falls contains a seedy red light district. I am proud to say we did not know this either, but discovered this while attempting to find dinner establishments in which to, of all things, eat dinner. Ari may or may not discuss the red light district at some future time, but suffice it to say that if you like to gamble or have a particularly strong desire to pay $8 (Canadian of course) for parking when there are hundreds of empty spots available, you should enjoy Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Of course, I have nothing but mostly good news to report on this, the first full day of the Great American Hippo. I am sad to report that at the time of this writing, we still do not have the capabilities to post pictures on the yahoo site. I am pleased to report that we, just like Cingular Wireless and my previously unavailable national calling plan, are making the restoration of service our top priority. We may even be willing to pay money to the evil Starbucks Corporation to utilize their high speed wireless Internet capabilities to upload pictures. For tech-savvy readers, you may be pleased to know that we have reduced the average size of our pictures to accommodate the slower upload speeds we may (and have) discovered along our route. An audience member highly skilled in photographic technology informed us that this reduction in size would not affect image quality for those viewing our site on the Internet, which I assume includes all of you.
We were competently advised by the Crazy One’s father last night to utilize a back road to make our way towards western New York. This two hour excursion proved highly valuable not only for the stunning scenery of back woods New York State, but also to substantially increase our standing Livestock Count (LC). Today I am proud to add cows to my list of sighted livestock, as well as a leather jacket-outfitted horse, to our Livestock list. The LC currently stands at 85, a dramatic increase from yesterday’s count of 5.
Today was the first time I drove the car on our trip. Ari and I have devised a highly competent division of labor for our journey. Out of all committee members polled, I feel most comfortable navigating, and least comfortable driving in the city or in inclement weather. Ari feels the least comfortable navigating and the most comfortable driving, even through inclement weather. Therefore, I will be driving during long stretches of interstate (isn’t it supposed to be intrastate?) highways that require little to no navigational services, whereas Ari will be driving through cities or areas that require extensive utilization of our onboard mapping software, which I have become quite adept at using.
Today I also had my second black squirrel sighting ever. After referring the matter to the committee, a squirrel has been declared as live, yet unfortunately not livestock. Therefore, I have not increased the livestock count after sighting said squirrel. My first-ever black squirrel sighting occurred in City Hall Park in New York City only five days ago. We may be witnessing a modern evolutionary natural selection process among urban squirrels in New York State. Biologist audience members, take note.
For nature-loving readers, you should know that I very much enjoyed my third-ever trip to Niagara Falls. The weather cleared up just as we arrived, and the late afternoon sun provided a stunning conclusion to our 6-hour drive. On the Canadian side at night, we saw the beautiful horseshoe and American falls lit up by multicolored rainbow lights. Undoubtedly, this would provide quite a romantic setting in warmer weather. However, we rushed to get back to our hotel to enjoy our good night sleep and to enjoy hot decaf coffee and Canadian heating capabilities.
Tomorrow, we are off to Toronto to visit our former roommate, Tony (Luka) (Cous Cous) Yeung. We are very much looking forward to our third day of the trip, and our second day in a foreign country. For those of you who may be skeptical, Canada is indeed a foreign country. After working so hard to obtain national Cingular Service in America, I was dismayed to learn that said service will not work in Canada as the American nation does not include foreign nations. Furthermore, and most shockingly, our hastily acquired American quarters do not work in Canadian parking meters. The trusty US mint was, most unfortunately, a miserable failure.
Thank you to those who continue to send us feedback. We apologize for the unfortunate delay in photograph posting, and look forward to a resumption in American currency spending and nationwide Cingular calls at the earliest available opportunity. Till then, may we all find resounding success, especially to committee members (whose identities may soon to be revealed in a picture posting) on the Great American Hippo.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
To those eagerly following our progress, I am pleased to report that the rain today finally dissipated somewhat to the point where we could actually see some nearby mountains later in the evening. The Crazy One has, for years, raved about the beautiful scenery of the area. I was able to witness some of this scenery on the drive back from dinner. The sight of mountains, trees and nearby houses bathed in soft moonlit twilight added a hypnotic element to our first day.
We are preparing ourselves for the next few days. The temperature up here is much colder than in New York City and unfortunately, the weather report is not good. The rain appears to be following us throughout our first week. Rain is forecast in every city we are planning to visit at the exact time we arrive. As I no longer have any sway with public authorities, a last minute appeal to the City Council may not even be enough to lift the threat of miserable weather:)
We promise to try to upload our pictures to the yahoo site (http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah) as soon as technology permits. Till next time! -P
We arrived at our first location about 4 hours ago: Tannserville, New York. We are here to visit our good friend, the crazy one blessed be he, Adam Lubow. En route to Tannersville, which is about 2 hours north of New York City, we decided to take a detour through Washington Heights to purchase some apple pie. We were tempted to order in Spanish.
Soon after our departure, and after an aborted detour through the Bronx, we crossed the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey. Somewhere on I-87, I was able to officially confirm our first livestock sighting. The current Livestock Count stands at 5. I am unilaterally declaring horses livestock, as per my prerogative as blog contributor. I am not sure whether horses are really livestock. Credit goes out to loyal audience member Maurice for suggesting the Livestock Count (LC).
It is difficult to coordinate posting when two people want to post, so I apologize for any eventual reptition. I have delegated to Ari certain tasks of discussing today's activities and certain exciting news concerning the title of our great journey.
I am looking forward to driving tomorrow to Niagara Falls. I am sure I will be much more tired tomorrow than today, as we've barely started this journey. Till then, :)
Monday, November 03, 2003
We have created our tentative itinerary for the first half of our trip. Our target: Irvine by Thanksgiving! We will be driving hard to ensure we can make our ambitious deadline:)
11/4 - NYC to Tannersville
11/5 - Tannersville to Niagara Falls
11/6 - Niagara Falls to Toronto
11/7 - Toronto
11/8 - Toronto to Chicago
11/9 - Chicago
11/10 - Chicago to St. Paul
11/11 - St. Paul to South Dakota
11/12 - South Dakota
11/13 - South Dakota to Wyoming
11/14 - Wyoming to Montana
11/15 - Yellowstone
11/16 - Yellowstone to Idaho Falls
11/17 - Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City
11/18 - Salt Lake City to Lake Tahoe
11/19 - Lake Tahoe to Yosemite
11/20 - Yosemite to San Francisco
11/21 - San Francisco
11/22 - San Francisco
11/23 - San Francisco to Santa Barbara
11/24 - Santa Barbara to Irvine
11/25 - Irvine
11/26 - Irvine
11/27 - Irvine (THANKSGIVING)
11/28 - Irvine to Las Vegas
We have been ruminating for the past few weeks on what to call the official title of our trip. Finalists are as follows:
- Miserable Failure Tour 2003
- Resounding Success Tour 2003
- Big Country Circuit
I think there were other finalists, but in my rush to type random things to start off the blog I can't remember any more. Until the committee returns from its deliberations, I have unilaterally decided to call our trip the Resounding Success Tour 2003. The committee reserves the right to change this title at its discretion without prior notice to our faithful audience. If you have any ideas, please let us know. If the committee chooses not to use your ideas, too bayad!:)
Welcome to our BLOG!! This web site will chronicle Ari & Guy's adventures across America. We plan on updating this web site frequently. Pictures will be posted to:
http://photos.yahoo.com/popemistah
Time is quickly winding down to prepare for our trip across America! Ari and I are currently running around like madmen trying to get everything together. Ari has gone to AAA to get maps and pertinent reading material. Guy ran all across Manhattan to buy other supplies like the ever-important dried fruit and travel-sized toiletries. After much deliberation, we have decided to purchase both salted AND non-salted pretzels. This compromise will no doubt go down in history as a crucial turning point in the affairs of mankind. Now, I really really really need to pack!
