23/12/2009
I left Madison, Wisconsin on Monday early morning and arrived in Seattle on Wednesday afternoon. I don't know if it seems like a long time to you or not, but I can tell you, I did that whole drive in much less time than I was expecting, even though the biggest part of it was as tough as I thought it would be.
The whole drive was 1928 miles (3103 kilometers). Although initially I thought I'd arrive in Seattle on Christmas eve (i.e. 3 days later), when I set off I set it as a goal to drive 650 miles a day and be at my final destination a day early. I drove through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington and the diversity of scenery, traffic, driving conditions and weather was truly remarkable.
The first day was just exhausting. Lots of snow and ice everywhere and the winds and snow would not stop attacking Charlie. Not only was half the highway covered in snow, making two of threes lanes very dangerous, but also the wind was maintaining a constant layer of snow floating over the remaining lane, like a big group of road ghosts, scaring all the drivers and laughing at their worried faces. And if you survived this, there was always the icy patch under every single overpass, attempting to send you skidding towards a deadly christmas road twist. Still well on your way? The bridges should finish the job, which, for some reason, many times had ice on their surface.
Try driving through this...
On a couple of occasions Charlie's wheels tried giving up on me and decided to go one way, while I wanted to go the other way. Luckily I had my hands tight around the wheel during the whole drive, and being the top class driver that I am (You better be nodding at this point!!), I kept it in line. That, however, does not mean that those split second were not accompanied by the perfectly understandable "oh, shiiiiiit!".
A stopped at a rest area as soon as daylight was fully gone. Funny enough, it was also the very same moment I had exceeded 650 miles and a snow storm had begun. Sleeping in Charlie was my only choice, but it was not going to be as pleasant as usual.It was 8pm and it was already -15 degrees Celcius. I am guessing realisation has not come, until I opened a can of corn that I had to eat, only to find its contents frozen solid. I knew that it was gonna be a chilly night. And chilly it was. (I ate the can of corn anyway. Hunger before comfort.)
The second day was much easier than the first. The second half of the whole distance to Seattle proved to be much quicker than I thought. I was expecting crazy mountain turns and endless mountains of snow, but instead, I found zero traffic and perfectly clean roads. I was still very careful for ice, but it was all fine. There were some random snowy moments and scary parts up in the mountains, but I felt confident enough to continue. I even decided to drive during the night, which got me to drive 950 miles before I parked Charlie outside a hotel at the state line of Idaho and Washington, to spend the night. Even the temperatures were much milder over there. Heck, I could even sleep naked (but still with 5 covers on top)!
The third and last day was a doddle. I was well ahead of schedule and it looked like I would be in Seattle for lunchtime. Even the skies were smiling at me and the weather was beautiful. Sunny day, blue skies and beautiful, varying scenery throughout the whole drive. There wasn't much snow around, but everything was crystalised and looked bleached!
I was in Seattle indeed by 1pm, where I met up with my friend E., whom I'll be staying with for a few days. I'm already getting a good vibe by this city. :)
M.
12/20/2009
We got to Wisconsin, where we stayed with my friend T. for about four days. Lots of snow, sledding, cold and stalactites. We are talking SERIOUS amounts of snow! You have no idea! I have never seen so much snow in one city!
And although we had lots of fun... I can't really think of anything else to talk about other than the snow and the cold.
Nowadays, instead of a purple heart, the US army gives a purple toilet.
And then we went to Madison. Hillary decided to return to California, so on friday she flew back. I stayed a few more days, walking around, exploring the city, hanging out at the lakes, meeting people, etc... On sunday, in fact, I went to a couchsurfer's graduation ceremony. It was quite funny to be back in that environment once again after so many years.
But again, after all that happened during my stay in Madison, all that is glued on my mind is images of snow and low temperatures! 
Obviously, they don't cycle much here during winter.
Seriously, I think my brain froze! :S
It's about time I leave the intense cold. But not before I put Charlie (and myself) through one last test.
Tomorrow, I am setting off early morning towards Seattle. A 2000 mile drive straight through all states between here and Washington state. It's not going to be an easy one, but hey, neither me nor Charlie is a beginner at this kind of thing. ;)
Next time you hear from me, it'll be from the west coast.
M.
13/12/2009
The days in Chicago were going by filled with aural, visual, amusing and flavourful experiences, all nicely wrapped up in a thick layer of snow!
Yes, I know this image portrays death more than fuzzy, amusing experiences, but humor me.
The first three days it felt cold, but nothing extravagant. No, actually, scrap that. It was fudging freezing!!! 
Ready to hit the streets. Don't let the clear skies fool you!
It was rather stupid to leave the house without 654123 layers of clothes on. We are talking temperatures that even reached -25 degrees Celcius one day! I really cannot understand what the hell those geese were doing, picking crap through the snowed-on grass. 
Look at my baby in the background! (No, not the goose! Charlie!!)
And then, we woke up on monday morning to find everyone covered in snow. Within one night, there was a good 4 inches (10cm) of snow in the streets. Absolutely beautiful, but as you can understand, tricky to walk on nevertheless. Which also made my need for new shoes much more imminent... Luckily, I was already covered when it comes to clothing (thanks to the former USSR, in a sort of twisted way...).
"Breezy and chilly" doesn't quite do it justice...
Despite the cold and the winds of course (did I mention that chicago is also called "The city of winds"? Well, it is!), we roamed around the city as much as possible. Chicago has soooo much to show and the week that we were planning to spend here was already seeming too little.
Chicago: View from the John Hancock tower.
Yes, Santa was there too!
The city is big and the size of the map is small. It kinda reminded me of Beijing, where due to the size of the city, it is impossible to fit every single street on the map. Hence, they only portray one every five streets. I would look at the city map, deciding where I wanted to go and I thought "yeah, this should take me about half an hour". Two hours later, I'd still be walking! Getting to Millenium Park, one of Chicago's most well-known attractions, was one of those cases. We only barely made it during daytime and had to go again another day. The so-called "bean" on Millenium Park is the biggest and most impressive landmark. 
Hey, is that someone arsing out over there? :p
It is a huge piece of art, shaped as a bean onto which all its surroundings are reflected and you can't even begin to imagine the ideas for poses people come up with to do in front of it.
We also tried the shopping thing, and to be honest, it is no different than anywhere else in the world; lots of shops, lots of floors, lots of clothes, lots of people running frantically all around to find that special pair of shoestrings that their beloved one has been wanting for so long.
For some of the Chicago days my friend C. from Greece joined us and it was a delight to see her and spend some time with her. But the biggest advantage of all: SHE IS NOT A VEGETARIAN!!! So we could go and enjoy the delicacies of Wiener Circle, the city's best hot dog stand! And daaaaamn it was good.
And C. obviously agrees!
Out of everything we got up to in Chicago though, I'd say the highlight for me by far was the theatrical play "Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (T.M.L.M.T.B.G.B. as it goes by - easy to say, no?). It is a 60 minute play, during which they perform 30 different skits, every single one of them extremely interactive with the audience. No wonder it has been running for 21 years! It was one of the most creative, entertaining, inspiring, touching theatrical plays I have ever seen. Hands down, THE one thing everyone should go and see in Chicago!
We ended up staying a few days extra in Chicago, but the day to move on arrived. Wisconsin was Charlie's next destination and to be more specific Stevens Point. As if it was not already cold and snowy enough, we were looking for more.....
M.
09/12/2009
After three full days, I decided to shave the rest of my face and become the usual "me" again.
The encounters I had during those days were quite interesting; neither immensely diverse, nor *that* eye-opening I would say. The discussions that came out of it though were very stimulating and thought provoking. More than anything, I want to thank all of you who sent me messages supporting this and showing your interest in the outcome and the observations.
In the street, there was a number of double-takes by people who were not quite sure they had seen what they had just seen. Along those lines of course, I had the numerous, long, disturbed stares which were just too many to count.
A lot of people would chat to me for ages and chose to ignore it completely throughout our whole conversation.
Some people asked me if I had lost a bet. I found that quite amusing, especially because I hadn't thought of that as an option. :)
There were also some negative reactions, such as the one where a woman literally ran away when I tried to ask where the Hancock tower was. Most of the negative responses though (two out of the three in total that is), did not come from people in the street. They came as comments from people who follow my blog, something which means that a discussion on the subject could have been had, but nothing as direct and immediate as when face-to-face.
What I found most surprising is that a lot of people did not even notice it! With a number of people I had been chatting for quite a while and 10 minutes in the conversation (or even longer at times), they would notice that half my beard was missing! On most of those occasions, they only noticed after someone pointed it out to them, rather than realising by themselves! This last finding made me wonder whether the ones that did not react at all to it remained oblivious to the fact that I had only half my face shaved.
All in all, I wouldn't quite consider this experiment a breakthrough in my thoughts and ideals. Nor was it an unspeakable success. My primary goal was to get many opportunities to show them that the way I look does not represent the way I am. Even the most simple interaction of them asking me why am I doing this and me replying, would spark up a conversation. It would break the barrier set between two people who do not know each other. In the long run, I was hoping that this will generate a thought in their heads that says "Hey. Talking to random strangers in the streets is not so bad after all!". In other words, getting people to realise how wrong they are to judge a person before getting to know them.
Going around with half a beard was just one method I decided to use to achieve this. The face is the first thing everyone always notices, so it's a fairly drastic method. As the days were passing though, I learnt a lot by the experience and observed it's strengths and weaknesses. In general, I feel that it did not make much of a difference. I already have a fairly eccentric appearance and the fact that I had half my beard shaved did not make that much of a difference. The total impact and the number of people this experiment affected was probably no different than if I was my usual self. Which means, although this was by no means a waste of time, there are more effective ways out there to achieve what I want to achieve.
Needless to say, I did not expect to change the world within those three days. People are not used to random acts of kindness and this will not change from one day to the next. But it's a start and every person that manages to see things differently, will eventually drag one more with them and so forth. So please, next time you're in the bus, on the train, sitting alone in a cafe, waiting in line to buy tickets to a concert, walking down the street, say hello with a smile to whoever is by you. Give yourself the gift of experiencing something new. You could improve someone's day. :)
M.
08/12/2009
So while we were on the bus, we decided to play a game. Each of us would write a sentence and hide it. Every person whose turn would come, was not allowed to read any of the previous phrases, but the very last written.
This is the result:
One day a rabbit and a pansy were discussing their smelly socks. they decided to explore the local cemetery where the Count was last seen. Since the day the boat arrived to Alaska, all polar bears had disappeared. So they decided to resort to cannibalism. They had a lottery to determine who would be the first. Naturally, the pansy ate the rabbit. And the polar bears reappeared and started eating all the pansies.
In the meantime, the crew found their captain, locked inside Montezuma's tomb. He was holding a rifle which was pointed directly toward a small opening, located in the corner of the room, which opened into a magical world where pizza and beer grows on trees and everyone loves greek stuff.
M.
06/12/2009
One evening we decided to venture into Evanston, a small neighborhood in the north of Chicago. We had heard about two interesting attractions there and we thought we'd go and check them out.
First one was a bookstore, called the bookman's alley. It's an old bookstore with many decades of tradition in rare, old books. Not only does it live up to its name, but it's also a truly unique space. When one enters, it looks pretty small, but once you start walking through its aisles, you discover more and more rooms. Every room is not only filled with stacks of old-looking books, but it's also decorated like the study room of an old couple that lived about a century ago. Old furniture, souvenirs that bring images of past times, antique items... It really felt like I had entered a time machine. Everything was beautiful.
Second was the local Baha'i temple. For those who are not familiar with this name, the Baha'i faith is a universal faith that started a long time ago, which was inviting believers of all other religions to join under it. To me, this all sounded like "blah blah blah religion blah blah religion blah blah". the interesting part was that the Baha'i faith has only a small number of temples around the world, one for each continent. The one for North America happens to be here, in Evanston. Why did they choose this city, I am not sure. But it's a pretty interesting temple, with lots of beautiful elements to it.
M.
06/12/2009
One of the reasons why I came to the US is to fight my inhibitions and prove my self wrong when it comes to my bad impression about people from this country. I have had some disappointing experiences in the past, but due to some wonderful ones, I decided to come here and see they're not all as bad. :)
In the four months I have spent in the US so far, not only have I been pleasantly surprised over and over again, but it also got me thinking regarding our everyday interactions: how people will respond to a person who will stop them in the middle of the street and make them feel uncomfortable in a number of ways by asking something very simple. It's amazing to observe that a lot of them are not interested to hear what you have to say. On many occasions, whether I asked "Would you like this one hundred dollar bill?", or "Would you like me to rape you?" I would get the same response. A quick "no" just to brush me off. People are not only in a hurry all the time, but they have evolved to not appreciating and expecting momentary human interaction that comes from outside their circle. When someone talks to them on the street, they will other feel violently removed from their comfort zone (and therefore threatened), or surprised that someone they do not know is actually speaking to them. Why should it be like that? Why is a simple hello nowadays not normal?
Chicago is the place where I have encountered this the most. Which is why I chose this city to do this:
A razor had not touched my face since september 2005
I am planning to continue with my everyday life as normal for a few days. Today, sunday the 6th of december, is the first day of this experiment.
I want to see how people will treat me. What their reactions will be like. How they will judge me, or avoid me, or even spark a conversation with me. I want to test people's limits and acceptance levels.
The inspiration for this experiment came by a very close friend of mine. You can read about his experience with the same experiment here: http://thelifelesstravelled.com/2008/08/fifty-fifty.html
I'll be keeping you posted. :)
M.
03/12/2009
A road trip cannot be a road trip without the occasional car problem. I had various so far, but this was the first one actually on the road.
On the way from Michigan to Chicago, driving down the I-94, under an almost snowy weather, we suddenly heard a very loud and disturbing noise coming from the rear left side of the car. We quickly pulled over, put on our huge jackets (the weather can't be handled with just a t-shirt and flip-flops anymore) and got out to face the damage.
The rear, left tire was not just flat. It had practically exploded. 
Anyway, no biggie I thought. I got a spare, so we'll change it and we'll be on our way. I went round the back, brought out the jack and the rest of the tools, and.... well... I didn't get much further from there to be honest.
To start with, I was fiddling with the jack and a long metal rod for about ten minutes, trying to figure out how to make them work together and get the damn car to rise. You should have seen my face. I was probably like a 6-month old kid, trying to fit the triangle in the circle. Trying from every possible angle and with all likely combinations, but I just couldn't get it to work.
I decided to leave that aside and try to get the spare wheel from under the van. Little did I know that I was in for yet another failure. How the hell do you get that wheel from under there? I knew that the long metal rod was the one to be used, but where the hell was I supposed to stick it? (Careful with the answers on this one.......) I was looking everywhere, under the van, on the side, behind the bumper, under the mattress. I ended up unscrewing something that I was not supposed to.
So there we are, both me and H., looking at each other baffled and feeling incompetent. She threw the idea of calling the AAA, but I felt too embarrassed to call road-side service just for a flat tire! (It wasn't just flat by the way, the whole damn thing exploded, but still. The procedure was the same...) Anyway, my initial reaction of not wanting to call the AAA was just me being in denied that I was useless and that I did need help to change the tire.
So we did call them and half an hour later they arrived. Changed the tire in a matter of 10 minutes and that was that.
At least we were not completely stupid. The jack was missing a tool, which is why we couldn't get it to work and to get the spare tyre off, I needed to remove a bit of rubber from behind the bumper, which I did not even notice it was possible. So with my competence not fully ridiculed and a good tyre in place, we continued our journey towards Chicago.
M.
02/12/2009
After the short visit in Canada, we stopped for a few days at my friend B.'s place in Keego Harbor, Michigan, a very small town located just north of Detroit.
We ventured a couple of times down to Detroit and both times I was shocked at the state in which this city is left. Abandoned buildings everywhere, even in the heart of the city. A big city that once was booming with activity, mainly after the industrial revolution years, is now nearing the stages of a ghost town.
One of the biggest abandoned buildings, if not the biggest, is the Packard plant. The Packard Motor Car manufacturing complex was established on the east side of Detroit in 1907. Packard manufactured luxury vehicles here until it went out of business in 1956. Now, it looks like a building that is half demolished. The huge 40-acre complex stands there and is visible from the centre of the city.
We ventured inside near sundown and took some pictures of its spooky remnants.
The whole city felt like it was lacking color and vibrance. Apparently, a big percentage of people who work in Detroit, do not live in it, but rather drive in and out every day. I'm sure it has a lot of hidden gems, and in the few days we had, we didn't have a chance to discover it all, but the abandoned neighborhoods images were quite striking by themselves.
We left Keego Harbor to make a one-night stop at Ann Arbor and the following day we set off towards Chicago. The weather is getting colder by the day...
M.
Posts
