"You're doing great!"

Lisa’s version of Weds-Friday:

Sunny and Whiter in love.

greetings from the road. leslie & i have made it to colorado. it has been a rough trip so far, but we can only feel so sorry for ourselves considering where we are off to. it has been a struggle to keep our eye on the prize, considering our vision has been hindered by the pile of crap that seems to be too valuable to let go of, and of course don't forget the snow. our little minivan is packed to the gills. i am quite sure the extra weight made getting through all that snow a lot easier. yesterday we had a few heart stopping moments- like when the 16 wheeler off our starboard bow started fish tailing- mini van came through like a champ! or when we passed a ford taurus with half the car torn away because another tractor trailer RIPPED it off.

A glass of wine at Applebee's makes it all ok!

on wednesday night, we were on hour 12 of driving and were almost finished for the day. i see the lights in my side view mirror (rearview mirror is 100% obstructed). i pull over going shit shit shit. this is at least the 4th time i've been pulled over for speeding, and i know there is no way i will be so lucky as to once again be given a warning. he takes my license info, and of course the rental agreement is buried. i can't find it. the fact that i don't have it on hand is funny on a whole other level. he walks away, and all i can think is "andy's going to kill me". so the handsome kind officer comes back with a little slip in his hand, and i'm thinking "ok, my luck ran out. it was a good run". he tells us to drive safe and disappears in to the night. i look at the paper, it's a warning!  we instantly call andy, because i know he is going to be livid. he never gets warnings, just tickets. hehe

Not Red Lobster. Still Applebee's!

then there are the stellar meals one gets on the road. i always look forward to my red lobster dinner on this drive. there is no rhyme or reason to why i love red lobster in the mid west, the enthusiasm is just there. i have learned just to accept it. i have forced this joy on to any one foolish enough to do this drive with me.

i have done this drive more times than i can count. if you have ever driven along the 80 through kearney, nebraska you know there is a pioneer archway monument. i have never stopped because i'm always trying to get the hell out of nebraska as fast as possible, but this trip i was finally going to stop and check it out.

Dejected in Frontierland.

we hit the road from grand island, ne this morning, getting ourselves in the car and on the road by 8:30, subway breakfast in the belly, first rancid cup of coffee ranted about and discarded. we made it to kearney by 9:30 am and i was ready to see my beloved arch, stop take some photos and go inside.... we pull up and...SON OF A BITCH! it doesn't open until 10am. well we have many miles ahead of us and we've already lost a day to poor planning, so once again no pioneer archway museum for me.

Westward ho!

so now we are in eastern colorado, we have traded the snow for warm sun and the stench of cow poop. we have less than 200 miles to breckenridge and boy am i ready to unpack this car. we have a lot to do in summit county. target, outlets, unpack minivan. now the boys kinda left us with a lot to deal with in new york and as penance have booked us massages for saturday morning, then on to vegas for a night. we will be reunited with the men folk on sunday and i am looking forward to us all being together on the 1st.  road weary ladies, signing off

Leslie’s version of Friday-Sunday:

Friday’s goal of hitting the road by 8:30 was made with minutes to spare! After grabbing the Comfort’s complimentary bear claw (meh), Quaker oatmeal bar (bleh!), and a piping hot cup of joe (mixed with hot cocoa to make it semi-palatable—only I did this, as Lisa wanted to order a “good” cup of coffee), we sped over to nearby Subway for egg sandwiches. Did you know that at Subway, they offer “yellow eggs” or “white eggs”? Lisa had a rough time ordering a “yellow egg” sandwich with peppers and tomatoes, but she somehow got through this blasphemous anti-culinary utterance. I on the other hand, had no problem ordering a white egg sandwich just like Lisa’s, only without cheese and toss some onions on that. Not really the same at all. I evidently confused the lady, because my sandwich arrived in my lap with only onions on the white egg. Not impressed! And no ketchup! No condiments of any kind in the bag. Meanwhile, Lisa’s “good” coffee turned out to be terrible, prompting her to dump it for a delicious gas station coffee. Again, she tossed this out after a few sips. For the next hour or so, it was as if we’d been caravanning across the desert for days without water. Lisa would see shimmering mirages of Starbucks just off the highway, and tear off onto an exit muttering, “There’s got to be one here…there’s just got to be!”

Alas, she finally resigned herself to the idea that Nebraska, or as she calls it, The Swamp of Sorrows, did not have any Starbucks at all, and decided that a place called “Donuts Delight” would be her only hope. And it was. She declared the coffee swallowable, and we split an apple fritter. Delicious, until I started to notice the grease slick forming on the roof of my mouth that wouldn’t go away until lunch, which was a fish taco at the Green Burrito. Gotta love road trip food!

8 hours later in Colorado, after schlepping our storage stuff up a snowy driveway and into the shed at Don, Lisa and Andy’s house, we feasted like starving beasts at a sushi joint (I made several lunges at sushi platters that didn’t belong to us while we waited), and Lisa caught up with former coworkers and friends. Even though we didn’t have time to hit the pow pow, it was a fun, quick visit and a huge relief to slough off a lot of our burden.

Little House on the Moon.

Oh. My. God. The massages! So awesome. If you are ever in Frisco, CO, go the Body Works. Moving right along, the further west you go in Colorado, the more it looks like how you expect it to look. Rocky. Tall. Snowy river. A place John Wayne would hang out. Squinting on his horse. That, by the way, was a 7-7-5 haiku. Appreciate. P.S., Utah looks just like the moon. Until it starts looking like crazy canyon land, and then looks like the moon again, or maybe Land of the Monkey People, and then it gets kind of hilly and boring and the sun goes down and then you can’t see anything. Not a haiku. That was just a prose poem.

Lisa jumps for joy...I miss the shot.

Utah power stance.

Vegas is tonight’s destination. Viva Las Vegas, but apparently no viva las late-night dinner buffets. We can’t find one online that goes past 10:30pm. What the hell? Is this Vegas or Nebraska?! Fortunately Lisa remembered that we gain an hour in Nevada, so we have a fighting chance of barging into the Bellagio and eating all the crab legs! Yay!

Wasting away again in Margaritaville.

Nope. Didn’t make it the dinner buffer by about 5 minutes. I dragged my bags dejectedly to the room, as we tried to figure out how to feed ourselves. We ended up hoodwinked by Circus Circus’ buffet “til 11pm” (nope, closed at 10) and had to accept defeat in the form of a $10 pitcher of weak margaritas and so-so fish tacos. The walk back to the Luxor was brilliant though. Lisa and I played a $1 on a quarter machine and lost, but I made up for it the next day, winning $18 dollars which contributed to the entrance fee to The Ghost Town of Calico, and lunch at the cowboy café! Oh and PS, we got our buffet in at breakfast. Hooray!


Long story shortened by one paragraph, we made it to the boys last night, had better fish tacos/burritos, and today the hard work begins for the 4 of us. Carl and Raleigh will be here tonight or tomorrow, and life will get interesting! Till next time!

Brooklyn in Vegas.

Ouch.

Pirates in Vegas. Run!

Queen of Ceasar's Palace.

Ghost Town of Calico!!!

Tat-a-tat-tat!

I know you've all been sorely missing a post from the ladies, while we've just been sore; skin-wise, at the boys, at too many unaccounted-for possessions not fitting in a pinche minivan, and at the stupid, stupid snow! We're on the road now (actually in bed watching Metalocalypse at the Comfort Inn), but posting retroactively, and also briefly. It's late and I want to go to bed! 

Friday Lee and I got our crew's requisite anchor tattoos; variations on the publisher's mark of Aldus Manutius, an Italian credited with the invention of italics, the modern use of the semi-colon, and precursor to paperback books. The anchor and "dolphin" (yep, that's a dolphin) symbol comes from an older Roman coin associated with the term, Festina Lente; to make haste slowly. This term might somewhat apply to the way we packed up our lives in New York, but more on that next time.

Lisa contemplates the pain of her upcoming rib tattoo.

Clean slate? Not for long.

Touchdown! Hm...not so bad. Owww...

Done in half an hour!

Like a sleeping angel; no pain at all!

Jk, you can't see the wincing.

Feeling great!

Finished! Beeeautiful!

Freaking Out Man

 This post was written yesterday but was help back a day due to crew management concerns.  We apologize for the hold up but under the circumstances it was probably the best decision.

Oh what a 24 hours.  Yesterday Don and I went down to LA.  We went back to our favourite second hand sailing store and got some rope for some big lines and some dock lines , some more anchors, more rags, an important book or two and some other stuff I have foregotten.  Then it was off to an industral plastic supply company to hunt for some polycarbonate for our windows.  Found some. Done, sorted and presently being cut.  The part I missed here was the 3 hours last night Don spent creating a cad file to send to a fulla to cut the windows.  Don had a little freak out followed by another little freak out and finshed off by a medium freak out.  Evidently his widnowsXP set up on the computer is not the best of friends with the cad program making a seemily simple task into a monster.


The good freak out of the day came courtesy of Leslie and Lisa.  2462 miles away in New York Lisa and leslie are packing up and finishing off the New York Project.  Evidently this isn't going as smoothly as the girls thought it should be.  Yesterday Don and I spent a good part the afternoon/evening talking the ladies off the proverbial ledge they had established themselves on.  If at any point during this trip we had wanted to pitch our trip as a reality tv show, I have a feeling yesterday would have been the day to use.  Somehow the space available inside the vechical aquiured by the ladies did not match with the space needed for the essentails packed inside the apartment.  This combined with the last minute selling of things (which then means a lot of waiting for people who are never on time) and the general feelings about leaving New York and living on a boat for the next year finally pushed both of them over the edge. 


Now I see your what you are thinking here.  Its an easy solution.  You harden up, deal with it and move on.  If you need to get rid of Stuff, Get rid of Stuff.  If you need to ship Stuff, Ship Stuff.  Get a big burly neighbour to sit on a few things in the car to create some more space.  Just do what needs to be done.  But Here I would need to stop you and remind you that not everyone see's the world your way and you need to have a little compassion especially with poeple in the middle of a mess like this.  I would also propose that I would fly you here from anywhere in the world just to watch you try and reason with these two ladies during a full blown panic attach.  That is something I would pay good money to see.
"Don would like to include here that it is probably best if you read the last paragraph in the context of Andrew Looking in a mirror"


More to the point.  Solutions were finally found.  Tears where wiped away and two very tired and drained men went to bed(the ladies had more work to do).  Lets see what happens tomorrow

Rule #1. Don't do business with anyone name "Mide"

As if selling stuff weren't hard enough! I've sold stuff on Craigslist before (although never so much!), and it's always been fine and sketch-free. But recently, I got what I thought was sort of a strange response to one of my postings:

midwayltd010@gmail.com

Thanks for your prompt response i will love to make an instant purchase ,i hope it is in good condition like it stated, i have taken a close look at the advert,and am completely satisfied so please do withdraw the advert from Craigslist.I don,t mind adding an extra $70 dollars for you to take the advert down from criagslist, so that i can be rest assured that am in hand of the item.I will also like you to know that i will be paying via CERTIFIED CHECK and it will be an over night payment.............You don,t need to bother your self with the shipment ok,I will take care of that myself.... So I will need you to provide me with the

following information to facilitate the mailing of the payment....Not p.o.box

Name to be on the check_______________

Home address or office address________

City__________________________________

State_________________________________

Zip Code______________________________

Cell phone #__________________________

**Once again ,I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping of this item . my shipper will move down to your place for the pick up...as soon as the money order clear.  hope you assure

me in hand of the item...  Have a nice day.......


Oookeeey. This seems abnormal. But maybe this guy's bad English is making him seem sketchy. Also, when people use all caps, you know they're trouble. Still, he's not asking for my SS#. But...


leslieannhenkel

Hi there, 

Sounds great, I will definitely take you up on your offer and remove the post to hold the couch for you for $320 total, but I'd love to call you and chat about the details of the shipping. May I have your number please? What's your name by the way? 


midway

Well My Name is Mide ..so i will like you to get back to me with your information so that i can issue the payment out to you asap and more so i will have call you but my cell phone is having problem but when i fixed it back i will try to call you asap ..so i will want you to get back to me with your information so that i can issue the check to you asap


Wow. So persistent without having even viewed the couch in real life? Then I start to wonder if you can fake a certified check. I look it up, and yes, yes you can. Ebay describes the way the whole thing goes down, so I decide it's safe to try one more thing with Mide. I give him an address. Surely he won't tell me he's going to send me a check for $3,000 dollars and ask me to pay his shipper with that money and then Western Union him the remainder. Mide, I believe in you! 


midway

Hello

How are you and how is your day? Hope everything if ok? .Well i will like to tell you that you will receive the payment next week.But, there is something i will like you to do for me. I just got married last week, i leave in New York, but will be relocating to your city as soon as i return from my honeymoon and will be going for my honeymoon in Dubai somewhere in the Asia next week. I might not be around to coordinate the pick up,and i will not want any delay from my side regarding the pick up so ,i will be adding the shipping fund with you money. As soon as you receive the payment,and get payment cashed.Then, I will instruct my shipper to get in contact with you for the pick up schedule time and date. so i will be sending the money to cover the shipment of the item, . You will receive the payment of $3,876 As soon as you have it, i will want you to deduct your money plus $100 for your effort and send the balance to the shipper via western union or money gram at any walmart store around you, the shipper will be pick up some other items for me in your city. I want to buy this item for

our my own use as soon as we return from Dubai. I hope i can count on you to do this for me. I will await your response asap, so that we can set the ball rolling


leslieannhenkel

Yeah, nice one. Actually don't send me anything. I now know that this is a scam. NO SALE!!! Have fun on your honeymoon, I hope your new wife enjoys being married to a  SCAMMER!


Yeah. After two more emails similar to Mide's, but with better English, I'm replying with this: 

leslieannhenkel

Please get a real job. You should know that your scam is retarded and you should really find a new email template because this is just like 2 I've gotten already. 

You suck for trying to rip people off, and karma is a bitch. So enjoy your scummy, scammy life in Scamtown! 

dead in a ditch

Incapable of taking a nice pic of ourselves.

greetings from bed. last night leslie & i had our going away party. yeah. umm. i may have been drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. someone may have gotten a ticket for public urination. we may have been serving ourselves. thanks roberta's- we love you. it's 5 pm and we are still in bed. just ordered indian food & it will most likely be consumed in bed. somehow we are still getting stuff done. wood rafters that make up our kitchen table will be gone in about an hour. i would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone that shedding your stuff is amazing. i love it & highly recommend it. i have unloaded some stuff this week that i thought i would be more upset about. like the green leather chair that is one of the last pieces of furniture left from the house i grew up in. i can remember my grandfather, my father & my mother sitting in it. but it's made me realize that stuff isn't them. it can't pinch my cheek, fix anything & everything, or dazzle me with a smile. it's just stuff & holding on to it only holds you back. so the house is getting emptier, our pile of cash from selling this stuff is getting bigger & we are getting closer to our last day in new york. we still have a lot of work before we shove off in mid-february, but i'm finally able to start picturing this trip.

Aye-aye captain crazy!

I'd just like to say (this is Leslie now, using my capitals) that Lisa picked the most delicious pies for the civilized, dinner portion of the evening (though Lisa and her friends claim that me and my group were civilized for the entire night; that is not a compliment coming from that gang of ruffians!). Bosc Blues: gorganzola, pears and carmalized onions; Speckenwolf (I only know it had speck and mushrooms on it, and looked good), and A kale pie with tallegio (fatty melty delicious cheese), and potatoes. I was initially skeptical of this one, but it proved to be my favorite. Anyway, it was a fun night overall. Enjoy the photographic highlights!

Thank you Matt the gracious bartender. Did anyone pay you?

Matt and Ulyses cuddling..

Lisa wants you to see his beard. 

Nobody puts Mao in a corner!

Stina, Nick and Megan. Loaded!

Young love.

Hi Ann and Nick!

Pam learns to pour a beer.

Ellie dances like a champ.

Bri and Pam are cute, in that psycho kind of way

Stina makes a funny face while Nick makes a weird face.

George, on top of things

"Every Day I'm Hustling, Hustling, Hustling..."

Snow daze!

Alright boys, we've had enough of this "new post every day" showboating. Lisa and I haven't had the luxury of cruising around in LA traffic (in what I can only imagine is a red convertible), eating burritos, getting tattooed, wearing shorts, testing dinghies, and certainly not going to bagel shops to write blog posts.

Oh stop. We know you've been working hard too. But you guys could be tarring rooftops every day in Southern California, and we'd still envy you for getting out of this 20 degrees, "feels like 6 degrees", black ice and snow everywhere weather.  

It's like Goodwill up in here!

But, now that stuff has started moving, stuff, the albatross around the neck of anyone trying to move onto a boat for a year, we've started to breath a little easier. Last night's selling soiree, while not the social event of the year (I blame you, snow!), was a roaring success in our minds. 5 bottles down, $500-something up, and we're not having such a bad time ourselves. It's weird though, living in what basically amounts to a second-hand store; spaces taking the place of furniture we've all grown to associate with our life here. It's harder on the Fierros, who grew up with some of these things. 

Charles Shaw showed up.

But I know this is what Don intended to happen when he thought up this crazy scheme. To let all our various albatrosses fly free, across the Pacific; trading heavy memories and inertia for new, unbelievable adventures and experiences. And as we all break our butts to hustle, build, clean, pack, fix, finalize, and say goodbye to friends and family, we embrace the tradeoff for all it's worth, and look forward to February, when we're finally together and ready to fly.

Here today...

Gone tomorrow.

Sold!

Don's work desk.

Intermission: Aldebaran's Holiday Card



One of the victims of the Fierros' rampage.

It's an interesting time in the lives of the Aldebaran crew. The Fierros, lacking their better halves, have set New York on fire with all-night binges, destruction of property, harassment of department store Santas (mistaking them for Greg--see Part One), cruelty towards pigs, and all around hooliganistic behavior. Maybe some pizzas have been made...maybe some records have been mixed and audio kits sold...I really have no idea. All I know is, watch out for Don and Lisa! 

#1. on the list: laser tag!

And Carl? Well, I have no clue what Carl is doing in Michigan, either, but  rumor has it he's been making a list and checking it twice, and this list (of things to do before he aborts his nice cushy energy management position in Seattle) keeps getting longer, much like Pee Wee Herman's proverbial sweater that he keeps knitting, and knitting, and KNITTING...To make matters worse for Carl, Raleigh hasn't been paying his child support(s), and is therefore on the run from Johnny Law this holiday season. Carl thinks he's snuck over the border to Mexico, but has high hopes that Raleigh will once again find a band of missionaries to infiltrate as a "rescue dog," and will meet us right on time in San Diego.

Andy's 200 yard espresso stare.

All alone in a cold, cold world.



At least I can always count on Andy to be fastened down to a reasonable schedule of sensible behaviors. Wake up at dawn, stretch, eat a bagel with hummus and avocado, teach snowboarding all day, come home, stretch, watch some sport, in bed by ten. Then again, he must be freaking out about the shitty espresso in Colorado, and missing New York, and Lisa, and the holidays with family...and he is definitely missing harassing and getting harassed by me and Don! He very well may be setting things on fire too.

I've just been getting set on fire by hot yoga in little old Fair Oaks, CA, and Henkeling around with the Henkels in a different pair of boat shoes every day. Mom used to work for Nike in the eighties, and has about a thousand pairs of shoes stored away in a bomb shelter, just in case World War III happens in our lifetime and there's a massive food shortage. It's good to know that we will be both well shod, and well fed, by her passion for fashion! Anyhow, I guess Nike owns or owned Spalding, who made some very nice topsiders which I now possess. Since I've been driving around in a car without a radio, I made up a song/rap about it. I hope to perfect it on the boat so I can make it a solid gold hit in New Zealand. Amy Poehler can come perform it with me, and people can see how much we don't actually look alike.

...I  make the more comical faces.

 

While we both enjoy a buttery chard...

Chorus:

I got more boat shoes than you!

I got more boat shoes than you!

I got more boat shoes, tell you what I'll do

Gonna walk all over the boats in the blue!

Walkin on the harbor, Ventura or Ann Arbor

Ain't no finer feet you gonna see

I got Sperry Topsiders, Spalding No-Sliders,
No one's got more boat shoes than me.

[Chorus repeats]

In Brooklyn they all got pairs, but they never go nowheres

Their boat shoes never ever seen the sea

But their fashion don't matter, don't mind their pitter patter

Cuz no one's got more boat shoes than me.

[Chorus repeats]

Aldebaran flees marauding gingerbread men.

Hmmm. Maybe I'm freaking out a little myself. Merry Christmas, Merry Festivus, Happy Haunikau, Jolly Qwansa, and a very Jingly Nothingness to the atheists! I promise Part Duex of Aldebbie's Smooth Move will be up by 2011!