"Didn't really feel that long at all."

Iowa

We had been seeing Taco John's signs for hundreds of miles at this point so when it was time to get lunch we decided we'd give the West-Mex fast food chain a chance. Both of us were impressed, he gave it a 7/10 if Taco Bell is a 6/10. Now we have a different fast food taco for every part of the country: Taco Bell in the midwest, Taco Johns's in the middle of the country, and Jack in the Box out west (he clarified that Jack in the Box is still the undisputed champ.)

Illinois

Started to feel like we were driving through our home state. This is most likely because they look very similar, but I like to think it's because my mom is from here and some of the nostalgia she feels for her home was passed down to me.

Indiana

Only drove through for a few miles. Sorry Indiana, I've got nothing.

Michigan

Best state ever! Everything is awesome! Why did we ever leave God's gift to the world in the first place!? Look at that magnificent sunset over Lake Michigan! Look, everyone is waving to us as we drive by! Everybody loves everybody here!

It was time to start looking for a place to eat dinner and I was getting sick of fast food chains so I scoped out a restaurant along Lake Michigan to provide us with a much healthier meal: pizza. This place had above a 95% rating on Yelp, UrbanSpoon, and Google. The view of the sunset reflecting off the ice and snow on the lake was stunning, and reading through reviews of the "best pizza in Sourhwest Michigan" was making my mouth water. We ended up eating Pizza Hut instead.

There was a line out the door and Mr. Kowalski had his very own "San Jose International Airport moment" in the parking lot, so we decided it wasn't worth it and settled on Pizza Hut. Apparently their signs don't even say "Pizza Hut" anymore so we unknowingly drove past "Wing Street" the first time. I don't understand.

After dinner we just had a three-hour drive left to the cottage, so it felt like a normal trip up north. We saw snow for the first time on our trip, but the roads continued to stay clear the whole way. We were truly lucky not to run into any bad weather considering what a crazy winter this has been. We both commented on how the trip "didn't really feel that long at all." We did a great job of splitting the driving time and having a good partner always makes hard times bearable. There's a couple feet of snow in Harrison, and one of us tumbled face first into it on our walk to the door. We started the trip with an embarrassment and we ended the trip with an embarrassment. How perfect.

So this is where we part. Thanks for coming along for the ride, readers. This has been fun for me, but I think my blogging days are over. I hope my dad enjoys it as much as you all have, I love him very much and I feel lucky to be able to spend this time with him.

Time for the big reveal...

"We should be able to coast all the way to Harrison."

Wyoming

35mph winds through most of the state, so it was nice to see windmills collecting all of that energy. We passed the Continental Divide and RedpopLover55 joked that "We should be able to coast all the way to Harrison."  I played with the physics of continental divides in my head for a while after that. 

There's no cruise control on the truck, but the speed limit became 75mph and the governor is set at 75mph, so we could just drive with the pedal to the floor. Exits were few and far between, and I'm still suprised we never ended up on the side of the road with an empty tank.

Nebraska

Early in our drive we predicted we would miss looking at the mountains when we reached the middle of the country. I can't speak for Timmy, but I never got tired of looking out the window. Each state/region had something different to offer. Plus, the "boring" fields made for easier driving (possibly making me enjoy them more.) It took DJ Dad 20 hours of driving to break out Randy Newman, so I'm grateful for that.

I still feel bad about not having more pictures to share, but there's two big problems with trying to take a picture's from inside a car.

We drove through Park City early Wednesday morning and my sister, brother-in-law, and nephews flew to Park City late Wednesday night. I sent Dani a picture saying "Worst timing ever," which showcases the first problem: dirty windshields.

She responded 12 hours later with a picture of the same sign which showcases the second problem: motion blur.

We slept in Omaha, Nebrkaska after the 15 hour drive. Time for the home stretch to our cottage in Harrison. One more blog post to go, I'm starting to miss numbers, words are hard.

I apologize for not embarrassing myself at all on Wednesday, resulting in a less exciting post. I'm trying not to get too detailed because I'm worried Mr. Anti-Social Media will be upset when he reads it. In it's current state, I think he'll be happy to have a few seeds of information to help remember the trip. I know that I will.

"Is your heart rate back to normal?"

Road trip time. We somehow managed to squeeze the last remaining tools in the truck. My summers spent loading trucks and years of playing Tetris seem to have paid off because after the first day of driving there hasn't been any shifting back there. It was sad leaving Santa Cruz and Rosemary after only being there for a few days, but at the same time I was anxious to get out on the open road.

A feeling that quickly went away.

California

I drove by myself from Santa Cruz to San Jose in the truck because we had to drop off the rental car at the airport. I'd never driven a truck this large, and this was the hardest stretch of our drive so it wasn't an appropriate time to put my jams on. I kept my hands at 10 and 2 and got to San Jose just fine.

My sensei had to fill up the tank before dropping the car off, so I drove into the airport and seeked out a good spot to wait to pick him up. First, a disclaimer: I made sure to look at the clearance height of the truck before driving it, 11'. So I'm driving into the airport and I remember that the rental area is right next to a big parking lot. I see the parking lot and pull in thinking that it'll be worth it to pay a dollar instead of driving around for who knows how long while he's getting gas. But as I pull up to the gate I realize that it's only for long term parking with a flat rate of $22 a day. There weren't any cars around so I reversed back to the main road. I wasn't about to spend $22 to park for 10 minutes, but the combination of the airport, where I feel like I'm being watched by the NSA at all time, and breaking the rules led to sweating. That was my fault though, I take full responsibility for not properly reading the sign that probably existed saying "Long Term Parking Only" 

So plan B, pull right up to the rental car place in the first floor of the parking garage. There were two "you must not be this tall to ride this parking structure" yellow hanging tubes spaced out along the one lane road leading to the entrance.

The problem is, the numbers telling me how tall it is were chipped off. It appeared much taller than 11', but I played it safe and drove under it an inch at a time. It was on swinging chains so worst case scenario I tap it, realize I'm too tall, and drive away. But there's no problem, I clear it easily. So now I pull up to the entrance and there's another second yellow tube, which should be the same height as the one I just went under because they both lead to the same place, right? Wrong. I can't relive it yet so my description will be brief. 

BANG. In shock. Stuck in parking garage surrounded by yellow tubes that I can't fit under. Reverse around the side of one of the yellow tubes to exit structure. Pick up the other Kowalski. Drive out of California as quickly as possible. 

The green hills and winding roads were beautiful but I was too busy questioning my intelligence to notice. I tried to explain the whole ordeal to him, but I was still too in shock. He stared at my worryingly for a while, but after a few hours of white knuckles on the steering wheel, he must've noticed I was feeling better. "Is your heart rate back to normal?" Yes it is, time to enjoy the trip.

Nevada

Casinos everywhere, easy driving. I was a just passenger for the first half of the state and we listened to a short audiobook. We made it through Donner's Pass without eating each other. Gas station clerk told us they normally get 400 inches of snow, but we haven't an inch on our drive so far. I got a call from a number I didn't recognize in California and automatically assumed it was the police coming after me for the airport fiasco, but thankfully it was just my mom's cousin Tim. Switched drivers in Winnemuca, and then stopped for gas at the Utah-Nevada border where they crammed as many casinos as they possibly could.

Utah

I was the anchor for our 14 hour drive and got us to Salt Lake City around midnight. The only time thats matter to us now though are how long since we've last ate and slept. The night's sky was the clearest and brightest I've seen in my life. I was tempted to pull my grandpa's telescope out of the back and do some star gazing. I crashed as soon as we checked into our hotel, but the Insomniac couldn't fall asleep, I'm blamed my snoring. Next up, 14 hour drive to Omaha.

Note: I started off trying to take pictures of the drive, but my phone just doesn't do the views any justice so I stopped. 

"She's summoning sea monsters"

I woke up in time to see the sunrise. Yes, the 3 hour time difference helped, but still, those who know me well should be impressed by this feat. Proof.

Rocky has been taking a 4 mile walk every day for over a year now, but this was the first time I'd joined him on his trek. I was amazed at how fast he can go, it seems like just yesterday I was at the police station being told he might not ever walk again, and now he's more active than me. Very proud of him.

The people of Santa Cruz are as interesting as the shore is beautiful. A woman stepped out of her car, walked straight to the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, raised her hands straight above her head for about 10 seconds, walked back to her car, and left. I was thinking about what the purpose of the whole routine was, and apparently, so was Papa K. 

As we're passing her I hear, "If sea monsters come out to attack you know why. She's summoning sea monsters." 

As the walk went on he changed from cracking jokes about oddities to merely pointing out their existence. "Old man with a bandana." "Dog with a lei." I'm sure the other walkers were doing the same thing. "Two smelly Midwesterners saying good morning to everyone."

We drove down the pier to take a video of the seals for Noah, and eat a delicious breakfast where we got to FaceTime with Brady. The Pioneer in Plastic Salads is always thinking about his grandkids. 

Next, we drove over to Budget Truck Rental to pick up our 16 footer. She's a real beaut. I followed my dad in the rental car back to the house while he was driving the U-Haul. It should only be about a 10 minute drive. If you can remember back to my first blog, I'm a big fan of singing in the car when I'm alone. This was my only chance to really get into a song over vacation so when "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" comes on the radio, I'm obviously going to take full advantage. Once the song song ended and the adrenaline rush had been achieved I started thinking about the blog. I remember my inner dialogue quite well actually. "I've got that funny thing about sea monsters. I can probably throw my karaoke sesh in there somehow. This is gonna be a good one. It's still only like 9am. The possibilities are endless. Maybe I could switch over to doing a documentary or something. I should get an exterior shot of him driving the truck just in case, this is my only opportunity. Oh yeah that's perfect. Pull up next to him to get a better angle. He looks so majestic driving that beast. This is definitely the opening shot of the movie. I need to turn my camera sideways. Wait, what's he pointing at...?"

"Oh, he was pointing to turn... Damn, where am I?"

My lonely detour brought me back down to earth. The documentary has been put on hold. The rest of the day was spent loading the truck. We went to Rosemary's before bed to say our goodbyes and eat a delicious dinner. Planning on driving from Santa Cruz to Salt Lake City on Tuesday. The road trip is upon us. 

"That Dani is a funny girl."

Our first day in Santa Cruz was spent organizing the garage to figure out what we need to take back. Most of Big 'Stache's time was spent wondering why grandpa kept so much "junk." I pulled a big collection of rubber bands out of his trash bag, arguing that "we might need these while we're here." I think I have the gene...

My two favorite finds, outside the more personal items and endless collection of books and journals, had to be the engraver and power eraser. The engraver explains why the majority of his items bear his initials. The power eraser means I'll have to sit next to an outlet for my exams from now on.

The realtor was showing the house from 1-4, so it was Thaim for lunch followed by a trip to Rosemary's house (my grandpa's widow). My mom realized this would be her only opportunity to ensure we eat something healthy on the trip. "Sue wants you to eat fruit." The man who has dedicated his life to dental health went straight for the Jordan Almonds...

This blog has been a great experience so far. I woke up Sunday morning with the intention to nix the whole thing, but once I saw all the positive feedback I decided I'm sticking with it. It's been tough to keep ol' blue eyes in the dark, but everyone has been cooperative and I'm very appreciative. 

So Rosemary almost blew my cover. The three of us were talking in the living room when out of nowhere she says "I tried to read your blog today but I couldn't get it to open." Thank goodness the universal sign for "be quiet" spans generations. He gave her a funny look. "Mikie doesn't have a blog...?" She instantly answered with "I meant Dani's new blog." I pulled up FASBBFFBFF for her on the couch along with a word document saying "He doesn't know, please keep secret!" When she finished reading my dad asked how she liked it. With a smile on her face: "That Dani is a funny girl." And that Rosemary is cool under pressure.

It's been funny to hear his phone calls with my family. My dad was talking to my sister Tricia about my climbing adventures from last night, which everyone somehow knew about without talking to either of us. "It was like something out of a bad movie." Nope, just something out of a bad blog.

"Whatever, let's just go"

I've been lucky enough to fly a considerable amount in my life. I don't remember the glory days of flying pre-9/11 since I was only 8 at the time, but I do remember yesterday, and boy did I feel glorious.

I'm a big fan of comedian Louis CK's, "Everything's amazing, and nobody's happy" rant from a few years back. The worst part of flying for me has always been security. I have no reason to be nervous, it's not like I have anything to hide from TSA, but that doesn't stop me from shaking all the way through the line. The whole process just seems so unnatural. I check my bags for sharp objects at least 3 times before leaving because I can't imagine the absolute terror of hearing an agent say "I'm sorry sir, you can't bring this $1 pair of scissors on board with you today, I'm going to have to keep this..."  

This time was different though. There was no line so I didn't have time to get nervous (this made Papa K mad because he had been given a special pass to skip to the front of the line.) I exchanged words with 3 different TSA agents, all 3 made jokes and were quite friendly. All around, good experience.

The plane from Detroit to Minneapolis was tiny, but every seat was filled. The plane from Detroit to San Jose was huge, but every seat was empty. I'm not one to complain about leg room on a flight because I never have enough leg room in classes, movie theaters, cars, bathrooms, beds, roller coasters, or anywhere else. I'm used to it. That being said, I got lucky this time and was very grateful. The first flight we sat in the first row, with extra leg room, and the second flight I moved back to the exit row which had the seat in front of it taken out.

It was icy when we left Detroit so we had to wait a bit for them to de-ice the plane. At one point the pilot went outside to look at something on the plane, only to return with the reassuring words of "Whatever, let's just go." 

We were given 30 minutes of free internet from All State which gave me enough time to start this blog.

90% of the Peanuts and Ginger Ale I've consumed in life have been in the air, but yeah, they were delicious and I felt like I was King of the Clouds.

Landing over the Bay Area late at night was a beautiful scene, and it was nice to be allowed to keep my phone on (in Airplane mode) and put some background music (Beck's new album) to the breathtaking views.

We picked up the rental car and took a quick detour towards the wrong 636 Spring Street before heading to Santa Cruz. This made my travel companion a little unhappy since driving through the mountains makes him nervous, but it was nothing Jack in the Box couldn't fix.

 

It was nearing 3am eastern time once we finished eating the delicious beef paste tacos, so we were ready to get some sleep. The only thing standing in our way was a 2 story climb to the unlocked back door. 

And then one more climb when I accidentally locked us out again...

"Like this, I don't need a picture of soap."

If you're looking for a well thought out, goodly written blog with quality content, please stop reading now and proceed to oneyearblogging.blogspot.com. My sister Danielle has proofread every important document I’ve written in life, destroys me in Scrabble, has a degree in communications from the University of Texas, two beautiful children to provide an abundance of high-quality writing material, interviews with famous authors, and pictures with celebrities from her days at Letterman. I, on the other hand, couldn’t beat my 3-year-old nephew in Scrabble, have my dad to write about, am pursuing a degree in electrical engineering, and therefore just now beat my previous record for the longest thing I’ve written in college. So before continuing, if you choose to continue, I am forcing every reader to get caught up on my sister’s blog if for some crazy reason you aren’t already.

Now that we’ve gotten rid of all of the readers who don’t truly love me (or at least love to make fun of me) I’ll introduce my plans for the blog.  Firstly, I was somewhat inspired by my sister’s awesome aforementioned blog, which is nothing new since my sisters have been inspiring me throughout my life. I’m currently 10,000 feet in the air flying from Minneapolis to San Jose (Think of a funny cloud computing joke, come on this is like your specialty!!) My grandpa passed away last year in November, so my dad and I are flying to his house in California to pack up his belongings and then driving them back to Michigan. That’s 36 hours of driving. Or 33 days of walking according to Google Maps.

I spent this past summer driving around the Midwest for my friend Brad’s dad’s expediting delivery company, I won best driver in high school, and I spent last year’s mid-winter break driving solo down to Charleston, South Carolina. The trip to Charleston was the longest drive of my life, 13 hours, and I enjoyed every second of it.

I learned 3 things from that drive: the Appalachians are beautiful to drive through in light snow, pay attention to the speed limit when you’re 15 minutes from your destination, and the golden arches of McDonalds take on a whole new meaning when you’re driving through southern Ohio and have been holding it for over an hour.

You’re probably thinking, “Wow, this guy’s pretty much a professional driver, he’ll be fine on his cross country trip,” and for the most part you’re right, I’m really looking forward to the next few days. But I have a confession to make. My love of driving stems from my love of music. I listened to every one of Weezer’s and the Killer’s albums, twice, on that 13 hour trip (rediscovering the lost art of listening to an entire album.) Hundred’s of drivers witnessed my head banging and air guitar, my voice was gone for a week. So here’s the dilemma: I can’t sing my heart out on a road trip with someone else in the car, my voice is terrible. I already feel bad enough when my friends have to deal with my voice on the 3 hour drive up north. 40 hours of my voice is a form of torture too evil for my worst enemies, let alone the Dandy Dentist (I’ve decided that Timothy Wallace Kowalski will be referred to by a different name every time he’s mentioned in the blog, I’d get tired of writing “dad” 1,000 times.)  I’m rambling now, I’m going to channel my technical writing skills, the only kind us engineer’s need, and get to the point.

I think it would be fun to have a written account of my trip.

Writing is an important skill to have no matter what you’re doing in life, and I haven’t done enough of it lately.

It will be a fun way to pass time, and I have a feeling that I’ll have a lot to write about because my dad is usually quite good at stimulating my thoughts.

The rest of my entries will be much shorter, and be focused around the title quote. There isn’t as much conversation when it’s just my dad and I on a trip, I’m more of a thinker than a talker and he respects that. For this reason part of me was wishing my mom was coming along with us. Before we left for the airport this afternoon we were sitting on the couch together and I saw that she was going through her iPhone and deleting all of her texts, one at a time (and she texts quite a lot for a 40-year-old). I asked her why she was doing this and she said she doesn’t like clutter, no surprise there. “I don’t need all of this junk on my phone, if there’s a cute picture or something I’ll kee– see like this, I don’t need a picture of soap!”  She also prints off all of her important emails from the computer, and then proceeds to delete them. Empty inboxes, organized file cabinets. I love this about her though; she doesn’t trust the technology, and why should she? (I’m a rare Luddite engineer) I apologize in advance for quoting you mom, and pops in the future, but this brings me to my next point. Please don’t let Daddio know about this blog until we get back from our trip. I’ll only put things I know he’d say in public on here, nothing too embarrassing or private, but I feel like he’ll hold back or (much more likely) try too hard to be funny and clever if he finds out what I’m doing. I’m sure he’ll be appreciative to have our trip documented anyways. If not, sorry daddy, I’ll delete it!

I realize this is more appropriate for a journal or diary. People continue to document their lives through blogs, Facebook, and Twitter in the digital age, but I feel like these mediums too often become used for what people want to hear instead of what the writer really feels. Journals and diaries are much more valuable for gaining self-awareness and accessing one’s life accurately because no one will ever read these things, so the writer is the only judge and is more likely to be honest with themself. Plus, way too many people are trying to be writers when they just don’t have a talent for it (me), and it gets hard for the truly gifted writers of the world (my sister) to be found through the never ending trash out on the Internet. With this in mind I’ll try my best not to pander to anyone or anything. I’m doing this for me. I just feel like I’m a very private person in general, so some people might enjoy the chance to tagalong on our trip via my brain.