Go East, Young Man

A week and a half ago, I took a long road trip with my wife out to Indiana.  I got to see all of my siblings in a span of three days.  I went further away from home that I had ever been.  Err--I guess that's not true.  Here is a recap:

Day One

Vancouver, WA to Eagle, ID.
400ish miles, 6 and a half hours.

This is a trek I have been on often.  Not much to say.  I tried not to notice how beautiful it was.  We stopped in Arlington, as is mandatory.  Lunchables.  Gazebo.  Wasps.  I learned on NPR the other day that the bee-like looking things that bother you when you picnic are not bees.  Bees wouldn't do that.  They are probably wasps.  I hadn't had Lunchables for a long time, but I guess nothing really stops me from picking them up at the store.

We met up with Adam at Kyler's football practice.  Then we had pizza.  Then we left the next morning.

Day Two

 

Eagle, ID to Salt Lake City, UT
350ish miles, 5 and a half hours.

More of Idaho, and again, already-trodden land.  Much as Alyssa was dreading heading into Utah, we had to do it.  We did avoid Provo though.  We stayed in a swanky Bed-and-Breakfast in downtown SLC that Alyssa's aunt put up for us.  We went to the temple, LIVE!  Then we saw Jessica (it was not accidental).  We ate the Lion House.  I had pot roast.  Yummers.  Then we played pool.  

Day Three

 

Salt Lake City, UT to Omaha, NE

930ish miles.  13 and half hours.

 

Epic day.  We awoke at the crack of dawn, too early for our complimentary breakfast.  Headed out over the Rockies, with the blazing rising sun in our eyes. Wyoming was mostly signs for Little America, a truck stop.  Once we passed Cheyenne, it was untrodden territory for me.  By the time we reached Nebraska, we were already scouring the atlas feverishly for the next interesting thing to come up.  "Look, we are about to pass into a new county!" or my favorite, "Only 7 miles until we pass the unpaved road."  

At the first rest area in Nebraska, a nice lady told us it was still like 9 hours until Omaha.  With our heads hung, we drove and watched as cornfields filled our view--cornfields that fill up Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana--in fact, now that I think about it, we are still in the midst of cornfields.  

We passed glorious Lincoln in the evening dark and finally made it to Omaha.  We stayed with my mission bud Randy.  Talked about the mish.  Alyssa sat there patiently, probably dead tired as we laughed about the silly things we did.  

Day Four

 
 

Omaha, NE to Bloomington, IN

630ish miles  10 and a half hours

We had to get up super early so we could get to Bloomington (I want to shorten Bloomington to 'The Ming', you know in the style of Vancouver> 'The Couv') by 6 so we could meet our landlord and get into our house.  After the previous day's marathon, 600 miles seemed like nothing.  We first crossed over the Missouri River into Council Bluffs, Iowa.  As the sun rose over us, we were greeted by the rolling hills of Iowa.  In all, the Midwest as I have seen it has been more rolling than flat.  I was expecting flat, and I'm getting more curves, to be honest. 

In Des Moines, we had the closest thing to a crisis.  I mean, the odds are, on such a long trip, there has to be something, right?  Alyssa was napping as I was stunned by the booming metropolis of Des Moines, and all of its confusing freeways.  Right before my eyes I saw myself veering off onto another freeway when all my mind was thinking, "80.  80.  Stay on 80."  I mean, we had to stay on I-80 for over 1000 miles--it was the bulk of our trip.  Not too hard, huh?  But I started to take another freeway, and then realized my error and tried to pull over onto 80, but I took it a bit too late and the car went off the roadway, hit a pothole, bottomed out and woke Alyssa up.  In hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered if I had taken the other freeway, but I had visions of us ending up in South Dakota.

At the Quad Cities (for the uninformed, that's Davenport, IA; Bettendorf, IA; Rock Island, IL; and Moline, IL) we crossed over the great Mississippi into Illinois, the Land of Lincoln.  All of the states in this whole area try to claim Lincoln--we had seen a statue in Wyoming, there's Lincoln, NE, of course Illinois has a lot, Indiana says it was his boyhood home, Kentucky says he was born there.  I say, what's the big deal?  I was more excited to pass the Presidential Library of Herbert Hoover!

I thought the highlight of Illinois was Peoria (pictured above).  It was pretty.  We passed Bloomington, IL (ooh--so close) before we finally got into Indiana.  Once in Indiana, we had to take back roads into Bloomington.  We saw a bit of the countryside.  It's pretty here--there's forests and hills.  And, yes, corn. 

"Forget about the crowds, the size of the school, their fancy uniforms and remember what got you here "

• My own wedding
• A savory honeymoon
  
• Housesitting;
• with its subsequent lack of Internet access (a contributing source to the famine)
• the taking of the GRE
• selling my car
• packing all of my possessions (twice)
• disposing of many of my possessions
• giving a talk
• an exodus to Indiana
• a new home
  
• a new phone (that doesn't accidentally call people)

all of which could have their own separate post. Instead of gorging you on all of it at once, I will divvy it out piecemeal, in an easy-to-swallow daily dose. Of course, you could wait a few weeks and then read all of the entries at the same time, if that's how you roll.

A new link has been forged in the fires of Blogger-- a new family website curated by my spouse: Joelyssa. This site that you are reading now will not be unmade, for this site is MINE!

OK, now a random Hoosiers clip. I found this first, and it's really the only thing I knew I wanted in this post, but I haven't really worked it in. But we are in Indiana, so you know.

Pretty Mediocre Photographic Fakery

This is alternate version of myself riding a roller coaster.  If you observe closely, you can see him popping in and out of existence.  Note you can also see his pseudo-world through rips in the space-time continuum.  

This is What Happens When You Kiss Yourself...

My Latest Work of Art

Joel Feik's 10,021st Day of Life

Stardate 10021:

I guess it would have been a little bit cooler if I had posted on my 10,000th day, but my tally system--scratching on my wall with a sharp stick--makes it hard to pinpoint these milestones.

I snagged a coupon for SportClips, a new "barbershop" on 192nd, and got not only a haircut, but a steaming towel on my face, a scalp massage, and all while I watched SportsCenter! For free! I am a witness.

Then my mom and I went down to Clackamack and I got a humdinger of a wedding suit, plus they threw in another suit on account of good behavior.

We then traversed across the Promenade to a Sushi joint, for much Wasabi-laden goodness.

Later in the day, I mowed not one but two lawns, which is a personal record. I still feel like I am inhaling chlorophyll.

Still later, my fiance and I came one step closer towards our lifelong goal of getting married to each other by having a temple recommend interview.

To cap off the day, I won a fun game of Settlers of Cataan.

Bring on Day 10022!

What is the Pointiest Vegetable of them all?

I have no idea why Burgerville is promoting asparagi. Maybe an asparagus smoothie? An organic, Northwest-grown asparagus burger? At any rate, I saw this marquee that I thought was clever (click on the picture to zoom in):



I had been chuckling at its quirkiness for weeks when an unsettling feeling hit me. Some one or something was getting disrespected. Why, there are obvious candidates for pointier vegetables!

Carrots--hello? And artichoke leaves are so pointy they hurt.

Burgerville, my friend, you disappoint me. Throwing carrots and artichokes under the bus just for cheap laughs.