we stopped by the post office to relocate "tub", the affectionately named rubbermaid container with approximately four cubic feet of rachel's belongings. tub had been transferred from pasadena, to a corner of my apartment, to the rear passenger side of my car, and now via the local post office/pharmacy/soda fountain, to its final destination of rachel's future boston apartment. we parted ways with todd, off to our newly modified late afternoon/dinner date in lexington. the late night ironing session left me more tired than i had realized; rachel napped to leave me with my coffee and unfortunate road rage-yness. we made it to lexington to find john standing in his front yard, assuring that we would not pass by his house. we met brother, parents, and every family pet; we learned about the standing feud between john's father and their curmudgeonly parrot, george. john took us on a driving tour of his hometown, and we wondered at the determination, strength, and rationality of thieves that would steal a life-size bronze statue of a thoroughbred from a city park. we wrapped up our brief visit with a dinner at jimmy john's and conversations about future careers.

rachel and i continued north to oxford, where we would meet up with john again the next day. though over three hours from my apartment, crossing back into ohio was like a tiny homecoming for me after spending the last seven days in as many states. we were told that the steel band concert we thoroughly missed was great, and joined college friends lance and amber for a stroll across campus to shriver center. i opted against the jaw-dislocating "carmel" apples, and the four of us eventually drove south to cincinnati. they stayed in a church community house with some friends of rachel's, and i spent the night with old friend and housemate, joy, about a mile or two away. joy and i caught up and chatted and conversed until 2:30am, where i drew the line and insisted it was waaay past my bedtime. i left for oxford the next[?] morning, picked up my two free homecoming tickets courtesy of alumni band, and then saw my friend intisar for the first time in about three years. john joined us at a former-music-store-gone-coffeehouse later than expected, due to a snooze mishap. around 4pm, rachel, john and i drove out to the thurmers, where lance, amber, and our friend james would eventually meet us as well. the thurmers are like a second family to rachel, and it is easy to understand why. harvey and jane welcome rachel's various and sundry friends into their home effortlessly; children will [8] and marin [6 and 1/2] are boundless and passionate. i learned about marin's excitement for having dinner guests ["it's a fiesta!"], and from will i learned a great deal about dinosaurs. dinner was soon served; a time of friends, feasting, and conversation. kickoff was approaching, and lance and amber headed to their respective homes while harvey had self-imposed violin practice. the remainder of the dinner crew prepared for miami's first homecoming game to be played under lights. at halftime we crawled all the way up the home stands ["to the tippy top!"] to get the best view of my beloved marching band. will decided he wanted to stay for the second half with intisar, joy and i; so four remained at yager stadium while four went back home in the now persistent drizzle. will demanded that miami reach the thirty point threshold, and his demand was answered. the redhawks ended up squeaking by central florida, 43-7, which will happily relayed to Miami Team Early when we arrived back at the thurmer's.

sunday morning brought us to a presbyterian church service and a failed attempt at getting a toasted roll at shriver center. booooo. the afternoon proved to be an interesting excursion of cow hunting. no cows were harmed during our search; they were shot only with cameras. an abandoned barn was also caught in our crossfire, a barn filled with plenty of dangerous or possibly dangerous items and pitfalls to adults and children alike. but more importantly, it was a barn filled with an unknown past and infinite opportunities for the imagination to run wild. i felt strangely at home here, remembering the lazy summer days of childhood spent in similarly unsafe and perpetually intriguing structures. after an hour [or two?] of bone finding, mansion building, rock tossing and photo shooting, it was back to the thurmer's. at this point that i was originally planning on heading home... but i found that i could not bear to leave these children, these friends, and especially this road trip behind just yet. rachel convinced me to stay for supper; i went to my "napping room" to prepare for the three and a half hours i would be driving that evening. after dinner though, i knew it was time to leave. i packed up my now oddly empty car, and rachel and i shot the obligatory final road trip pictures. i hugged, i waved, i honked goodbye; i headed home.

after essentially living in a car with someone for over a week, the quietness of driving alone was actually quite unsettling. once out of cincinnati and its suburbs, on the dark stretches of highway, i found myself having to accept that the road trip was over. i made a few phone calls, but for the most part reflected on this amazing trip and the incredible people i have in my life. i was interrupted somewhere along the way by a blue mustang who apparently wanted to play cat-and-mouse. i was highly annoyed. after a few cycles of passing and being passed, we finally settled into a groove, with me in the lead and the mustang behind. i was still highly annoyed, both by its lights in every single mirror [how does that happen?] and by the knowledge that i was just the fall guy, the one in the lead to be picked off by any state trooper with a quota to fill. i made peace with the fact that this mustang might be in for the long haul on this drive; eventually it became sort of comforting, feeling that i was traveling "with" someone. two hours later i was nearing home; was this the mustang's destination as well? sure enough, ol' blue's exit was only a few miles before mine. i felt like i had to do something to commemorate our time together. weird. i gave a tap with my brake lights; would they even care? i'm still not sure if i was surprised when the mustang responded with a brief headlight flash. it was a surreal closure to the drive.

finally at home, i unloaded and unpacked necessities. i fell into bed, exhausted yet energized. thanks, rachel, for taking me on this crazy trip.

most of the journey to asheville was spent on interstate 40, which i will disaffectionately refer to as The Truck Tunnel for the remainder of these entries. semi trucks as far as the eye could see... and traveling at a highly disproportionate rate of speed. trucks carrying twenty new hondas should not, in my opinion, barrel along interstates at ninety miles per hour. but what do i know? after arriving, we found one of rachel's high school friends and dined at the noodle shop, located across the street from a park[?] complete with bronze turkey sculptures[!]. they talked woodwinds and orchestras while i attempted to slurp up my da lu noodles with chopsticks and one of those weird chinese soup spoons.

though we loved the charm of this city, goodbyes were made and we were off to bluff city, tennessee for a spontaneously scheduled [what?] dinner date. we were drawn by the offer of a hearty, wholesome, home-cooked meal by a friend of mine; burger king and wendy's lose their appeal quickly when you're on the road every day. after a couple of hours in the car [with some of the most AMAZING views on i-26], we reached our destination and were greeted by four heads poking out of the front window curtains in barely contained expectation. i got a quick hug in with mary, but rachel and i were immediately accosted by emma, karley, ryan and joel, not to mention every pet and photo album they could get their hands on. truly, this visit was a highlight of the trip; an amazing, intriguing and functional family, willing and excited to share their lives with these passing sojourners... and to rachel's photographic delight, willing subjects for the camera as well. oh, and... the food. joe came home and, surveying the feast, offered an open invitation to visit anytime if this was the sort of result he could expect. pot roast, mushrooms and gravy, potatoes, broccoli, and pound cake... mmmmm. this meal was thoroughly incredible and appreciated. afterwards, a shiraz run was made, the need for which mary attributed to me [what?!]. we picked up a bottle at the quietest liquor store i have ever been in. creepy. we finally settled in for the night and rested in preparation for wednesday's five hour drive on The Truck Tunnel. mary even cooked us waffles for breakfast [what?!?]; we took some final pictures and headed for the 'boro.

forever associated in my mind with maddening traffic congestion and schizophrenic street names, murfreesboro is home to middle tennessee state university. our zany college friend, todd, is currently a flute graduate student there. after finding his apartment, rachel and i parted ways for a few hours; she and todd were off to an mtsu flute concert, and i headed up to nashville to meet with a couple of friends. we had some amazing queso blanco dip and melt-in-your-mouth tortilla chips [mmmmm...], then met up with another friend who was playing boggle at a bar [what?]. i departed nashvegas and made my way back to the 'boro, where i learned much about todd's vision for his new apartment. soon it was lights out, and rachel and i eventually giggled our way to slumber. thursday we had front row seats for a music recital, with todd's woodwind quintet as the closing number. after a near tragic flute misplacement, we were off for a quick lunch. while rachel reacquainted herself with the atmosphere and opportunities of an academic music building, i took a brief nap and found the campus parking office. the remainder of the evening was spent running errands while traversing the seventh circle of hell. [can't a woman just find a simple turnaround on these roads?!] we ran mental price checks on sleeping bags, rachel experienced chick-fil-a for the first time, and we returned to campus to observe todd's orchestra rehearsal. after snickering about mullets and contemplating doing interpretive dance moves for the musicians' entertainment, we found mtsu's main library for an internet fix, then headed back to the apartment. we belatedly celebrated todd's birthday with some oreo pie, and fashioned three "vote for pedro" ringer tees at 1am. shortly before the iron-on extravaganza, we realized that with a four-and-a-half hour drive AND a time change, friday's lunch plan with our friend john was simply going to be out of the question.

seven through nine coming soon...

after an insanely busy week, the Fall Color Tour 2004 kicked off around 7am on the 16th. from my humble abode i drove an hour and a half to whisk rachel from columbus, where we snapped our first casual self-portraits and set off for another ninety minute drive to coshocton.

on the way, we stopped at Event Number One: the longaberger home office. for those who don't know, this is a building shaped like a basket. an enormous, ridiculous, seven story basket, to be exact. we followed the busload of middle aged women inside, noted the extreme waste of space in the center of the structure, and climbed a remote stairwell to the seventh floor.

we decided to pass on the obligatory tourist photo shot in the foyer, and headed to Event Number Two: the river view high school marching band invitational. we arrived on the scene and spotted our fellow miami alum in all his assistant band director glory. though now directing instead of marching, i witnessed the same determined focus i remembered so long ago in our mumb days. busy with students, responsibilities, and the unpredictable weather, steve became the unwitting object of our stalking; any lulls in the action were used for brief interactions with our dear friend. despite the intermittent downpours and wind gusts, we watched the generals march an impressive show, both visually and technically.

eventually we bade goodbye to steve and coshocton, and battled the weather all the way to virginia. en route to meeting my old high school friend krista and her husband phil, we passed through west virginia on three separate occasions, drove through horizontal rain-turned-briefly-to-flurries in maryland, and started a trend of interstate welcome center visits. finally arriving on campus, i caught up with krista while rachel sifted through pictures and phil started preparing the next day's lunch in this spacious resident director's apartment. the following morning was a bizarre mix of events including [but not limited to]: church service, a donkey sighting, a garden gnome photo shoot extravaganza, and the befriending of an elderly woman named peggy from staunton. after a delicious lunch of taco soup, we headed for the mountains. the overlooks at shenandoah national park were staggering. knowing full well that pictures could not possibly do the views any justice ["another faraway nature shot!"], i tried anyway. after hiking to see some falls [they can kill, you know], we opted for dinner from domino's, and our flexible and gracious hosts took us in for another night.

monday morning we were on the road to winston-salem, north carolina. brochures promised a town that we never really ended up finding. sure, we located winston-salem -- not to mention the OLD SALEM VISITORS CENTER[!] -- but frankly i was a little underwhelmed by what i saw. then again, maybe i was just tired of driving. at any rate, we met more miami alums for a short night's visit. though i never knew linda and charlie during my college days, there was still that odd familiarity that comes from meeting others with whom you have unknowingly shared a campus. rachel and linda chatted while i studied a "Let's Go USA!" travel book for our upcoming trip to asheville. after another good night's sleep and cookies for breakfast, charlie graciously fashioned a clear and precise map to direct us to the first[?] krispy kreme store; conveniently for us, it was located quite near i-40. i had my first ever fresh and hot krispy kreme glazed donut... mmmmm. after some action photos by the free standing krispy kreme sign on a well traveled highway, we were off to asheville.

four through six coming soon...

eight days and 2303 miles later, i am back in my now-vaguely-foreign apartment.

an overwhelming thanks to everyone along the way that warmly greeted and/or graciously hosted both rachel and i.

debriefing here at unleashed may take a bit as i unpack luggage, and reacquaint with my orderly ways and schedules. if you desire pictures, feel free to visit my more technologically advanced roadtrip companion's quasi photo essay blog.

as soon as the last gas station coffee wears off, i'm done for the night.
pleasant dreams.

now i'm in the middle tennessee state university library computer lab.

my computer's name is, apparently, "salinger". rachel's is "rawlings".

weird.

yesterday rachel and i drove through west virginia on three separate occasions. how does this happen?

right now i am in a resident director's dorm room in virginia. ah, dorm life.

traversing this grand country starting tomorrow...
be back on the 24th or so.
see you then!

dear faithful readers,

my apologies for the lack of updateageness. it's been crazy busy lately. planning a week long multiple state road trip, getting things in order at work, and entertaining dad while he's in the area, on top of the usual survival activities and relationship maintenance, is occupying lots of my time.

so if you're in virginia, north carolina, tennessee, or kentucky and you want to hang out give me a call. there's a good chance i might be in your area in the coming week or so.

no deep thoughts for today. the following verses have been a static placeholder in unpublished blog mode for a few days now. i'd like to expand on them, but i can't think of anything right now. so i'll let them stand alone, and bid you adieu.

this is your life, are you who you want to be?
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger, and you had everything to lose?

  - switchfoot, "this is your life"

i've been noticing during the past couple of weeks that i just don't care anymore.

don't worry; it's a good thing.

you know how in high school every little thing could be an ordeal in the making? oh no, a zit... i have clown feet... she's wearing the same shirt as me... my hair is crap... what will people think...? and so on and so forth. i mean, overall, high school was a pretty fun time for me, but man; now that i'm out i'd never want to go back. who needs that kind of daily pressure?

i realized the other day that many of the items on my old things-to-worry-about list have looong since been chucked. bad hair day? who cares! size eleven shoes? so what! what if i'm a dork? not a problem!

in a room of peers i am only moderately acquainted with, i now find myself at ease, cracking jokes that may or may not be funny but finding myself not caring. at the office where most co-workers are old enough to be my parents, i find myself at ease as well, keeping things light with comments that unfortunately are often lost on the baby boomers. which is really a shame, because they're always a hoot.

i am surprised on both counts. whether self-perception or reality, i've always seen myself as socially awkward and fairly shy [especially with people i don't know well]. while i still think that's true, i'm becoming aware that it seems less and less true as time goes on.

yay for me. score one for the change-can-be-good category.

anyone care to opine on the new look?