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Farewell America, Hello Africa.

5/23/2014

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By Caitlin and Jed

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7,000 miles driven, 25 states visited, 0 speeding tickets. Not bad. I'll admit, that the last 6 weeks were much more fun than I anticipated. I thought I would be really sick of the car, gas station bathrooms and probably Jed. However, I really missed the trusty Honda when we walked from the airport to our hostel this morning upon arriving in Johannesburg, South Africa. Now, as the international portion of our journey begins, we first wanted to make a list of some Bests/Worsts of our cross-country trip:



The Roadies – Jaitlin's road trip awards:

Best Cheap Motel: tie between Motel 6 and Microtel

Worst Motel: Super 8 Austin. Never a good sign to have 5 cop cars and several people handcuffed when you show up to your motel.

Most Essential Motel Amenity: Free Wifi

Least Essential Motel Amenity: Free breakfast (since we slept through it every time)

Top 3 Cities for Tourists: New Orleans, Savannah, and New York City

Favorite Ice Cream: Fielder's Choice - Sabbatus, ME

Best Gas Station - General Category: Love's (best magnet selection)

Best Gas Station - Bathroom Category: Pilot (big, thick walls between stalls is key)

Scariest Moment: Caitlin woke up in the middle of the night and thought a stranger was sleeping in the other bed at our motel in New Orleans. Only after waking Jed (and a brief heart attack), did we realize it was luggage, shadows, and paranoia playing a cruel trick.

The Hangover Award: Big Red Margarita, College Station, Texas

Best Spontaneous Celeb Spotting: Geraldo in full wizard gear at Harry Potter World (Jon Stewart was a close second, but loses out since it was not spontaneous)

Best Beard: 3-way tie for Eli, Dave, and Craig because beards are a pre-requisite of living in Maine

Best Catchphrase: “That would never happen in Chatham.” Refers to the idyllic life in Chatham, New Jersey

The "We Owe You Big Time" Award, You are Amazing: All of those who let us crash at their homes: Monika and Patrick Redmill, Mamie, Grandpa Harvey, Kerry Beckman, the Kasarjian Family (Chris, Kristina, Dylan and Avery), The Staff Family (Renata, Mike and Logan), Jimmy Foster, The NJ branch of the Johnson Family, Eli Leveston, Brad Wilson and our wonderful families.  Thank you all SO, SO much.

Lastly, it was so great to see all our family and friends on our road trip.  Here is a photo gallery of all those we got to see. We miss you all already!
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In another Life, I was probably a Ninja Turtle.

5/7/2014

6 Comments

 

by Jed

Pizza.  I love it.  It would probably be the one thing I would bring with me on a deserted island.  Thus, I was quite happy to be in NYC, one of the pizza capitals of the world.  Caitlin and I decided that for one of our dinners in NYC, we would just eat pizza...lots of pizza.  Since there are literally pizza places on every block of NYC (sometimes multiple pizza places), we just strolled around and went into any place that looked halfway decent.  Here is our Pizza review.  Do not read if you are hungry.  
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Most Famous Ben's Pizza
Cost: $2.75 per slice
Caitlin's Score: 7
Jed's Score: 6.5
Overall Impression: Not sure this deserves the moniker of "most famous", but it was pretty good.  Crust was a little too burnt, yet the pizza was also not hot enough at the same time.  I would still probably eat it every day for the rest of my life.
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.99 Cent Fresh Pizza
Cost: .99 per slice
Caitlin's Score: 5
Jed's Score: 7
Overall Impression: For a dollar a slice, the pizza was pretty damn good.  Definitely the best deal of the bunch. At this price, you could either buy an Ipad, or eat dinner here every night for a year.  That's an easy decision for me.
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Artichoke's Pizza
Cost: $4.50 per slice
Caitlin's Score: 6
Jed's Score: 6.5
Overall Impression: Despite it's name, we stuck with the plain slice in order to be able to compare places fairly. Coming in at a whopping $4.50 per slice, we had high expectations.  Unfortunately, the pizza was pretty average and didn't justify the 4.5X price tag of the better-named .99 cent Fresh Pizza. If I ate this pizza everyday for a year, I would probably need to get a job again.
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Ray's Pizza (famous original)
Cost: $3 per slice
Caitlin's Score: 7
Jed's Score: 7
Overall Impression: As many New Yorkers know, and I learned from one of the many Food channel shows I have accidentally watched, there is a battle between which "Ray's pizza" is the true Ray's pizza.  There is Ray's, famous Ray, original Ray's, famous original Ray's, and other such brilliant combinations.  I do not claim to know which was first or which is the best, but for a tourist trap, this Ray's was surprisingly decent.  Not the best pizza we had, but not the worst either.  If I ate this pizza every day for a year, I would probably be pretty satisfied...and morbidly obese.
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Fiore's Pizza
Cost: $2.50 per slice
Caitlin's Score: 8
Jed's Score: 9
Overall Impression: The semi-sweet sauce, the cooked -to-perfection dough, the delicious cheese...ladies and gentlemen, we have an undisputed winner.  Fiore's in Greenwich Village, well done sir, well done.  If I ate this pizza every day for the rest of my life, I'd be...in heaven. I'm hungry.

Lastly, and a complete non sequitur, special thanks to my high school friend Jim for hosting us in NYC and for talking us out to a party where I got to catch-up with some old high school classmates. It was great, and very weird, to run into Bethlehem kids in NYC. Go Eagles!? 
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How to not spend money in NYC: Don't Do Anything.

5/6/2014

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By Caitlin

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Ok, well not "nothing," but we didn't do a lot of typical NYC touristy stuff.  I guess we're just not museum people, Or Theatre lovers. Or city-view obsessed (at least not for $30 a person to go up to the top of the Roc). So that made not spending money pretty easy. What did we do? We walked a lot and we ate a lot.  With only a few days in the city, we were more focused on wandering around than spending time at any one site. We spent time in the Financial district, Brooklyn, Midtown, SoHo, Chelsea, Meatpacking, Union Square, West Village, Flat Iron District and Greenwich Village...we covered a lot of ground in 48 hours and actually never took a cab ...though we did rent Citi bikes!  Jed was channeling his inner New Yorker (which he sort of is by birth) when he nearly got into a shouting match with a large man who was casually strolling in the bike lane while we were biking up 8th avenue. 

By the end, we did, however, have very sore feet. pro tip: If your travel companion has an inexplicable pain in his foot and is hobbling through Madison square park, switch shoes! Obviously, this only works if you have similarly sized feet and are both wearing gender-neutral shoe styles. lucky for Jed I have big feet and happened to be wearing Men's shoes. (No shame!) 
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"Parks are awesome."--Leslie Knope.
We spent the better part of a day in Central Park. I wish we lived in NY just for this park. To be in it and to not see city in any direction would make living in a vast sea of steel and concrete so much better.  It made me wish I had a dog, and rollerblades, and was capable of running the 6 mile perimeter.  It also made me wish we had $528 billion so we can purchase the park as our own private playground.  We also really enjoyed the High Line,  a repurposed elevated train line that is now a park. It's a beautiful landscaped path through a few cool 'hoods that had buildings with really funky architecture. Even though there were a lot of people on it, it seemed immune to the bustle of the rest of the city.  
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What is so cool about New York City? It's regarded as one of the best cities in the world and I wanted to know why. I lived in a pretty awesome city for a few years (Chicago shout-out) so how different could NYC be? At the end of our trip I'll feel more informed to offer an opinion on the best cities, but I can say we fantasized about how cool it would be to live in the Big Apple as we strolled through the city streets. 

My only regret is that I didn't meet Beyoncé.
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Beer City USA

5/2/2014

4 Comments

 
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Asheville, North Carolina's nickname is "Beer City, USA", or at least that's what they signs tell us.  Apparently it's named this because it has more breweries per capita than anywhere else in America.  My only memory of Asheville was going to Crestridge Summer Camp outside of Asheville after begging my parents to let me go to sleep away camp at the age of 12, to which I attribute my knowledge of many beloved "Worship" songs and a love of the Appalachian Mountains.  The mountains and Asheville's rep as an artsy, hippie, brewery-loving town sealed it in the itinerary.  

We arrived on the heels of Moogfest, which left some interesting characters loitering around town that we assumed were all just part of the hippy-vagrant vibe, but maybe they were just visitors.  We never figured it out.  

We tried our best to soak it all in by hiking in the mountains, perusing all the beautiful crafts and pottery and of course, by drinking the beer of Beer City, USA 

We dedicated ourselves to the beer on one night in particular and here are our conclusions: 

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Asheville Brewing Co.
    Jed had Backstage Betty Blond: 4 out of 5  
     Caitlin had Rocket Girl Lager: 3 out of 5












Ben's Tune Up (beers were local, but not brewed there)
    Jed had Mother Earth Weeping Willow Wit: 3 out of 5 
    Caitlin had Pisgah Brewing Belgian Golden: 4 out of 5











Wicked Weed
    Jed had Lunatic Blond: 5 out of 5
    Caitlin had Orange Peel Pale Ale: Fuzzy out of Five or One Beer Too Many
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Also, Jed had some amazing ribs (or so he tells me) at 12 Bones, fave BBQ hangout of POTUS and the First Lady.

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Road Trip Halfway Point

4/27/2014

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PictureSiesta Key Beach, Sarasota, FL
Our U.S. road trip is already about halfway done =( At the halfway mark, we have covered: 
-4,500 miles
-13 States
-Spotted 48 state license plates (guess the two we are still missing?  There is a hint at the end of the post)
-Only 5 fast food places (not too bad!)
-Lodging at a potpourri of 2 star motels: Motel 6, Super 8, Red Roof Inn, Microtel, Holiday Inn, Regency Inn and Sleep Inn, to name a few 
-1 Klezmer band

Some people have asked us why our road trip didn't take us out west. We both really wanted to see more of the Western half of the US but ultimately prioritized visiting some friends and family east of the Mississippi.  The Honda also begged us to go easy in its old age.  

Despite all the time in our car,  we are surprisingly not sick of driving. The car has become our new home.  In the beginning, we even had trouble relaxing when we arrived at our destination, especially in Florida where the day's agenda might just be hitting the beach (for about 20 minutes before we burned).  As someone who really values a routine, and when the car is the most routine thing in our lives right now, it is actually somewhat disorienting to be in one place. But as we are spending more time on our trip with friends and family instead of $40 hotels, we are feeling much more at home. 

4 more weeks until we fly out of here and begin our 10+ months as ex-pats!  

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From the Big Easy to Taking it Easy

4/23/2014

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New Orleans
New Orleans is one of those cities whose reputation can be deceiving.  While Bourbon Street often dominates the imagery in my head, I was amazed at how beautiful and enchanting it was.  Maybe it was because it was cool and breezy and everything was in bloom.  

A small deluge was a welcome excuse to duck into a dive bar on Frenchman Street.  The beautiful homes of the Garden District were breathtaking, City Park gave us an unexpected Paddleboating workout and an encounter with a baby gator, and even the infamous Hurricane (very alcoholic drink) was a cheesy treat.  The Free Walking Tour was a great Intro to the city and left me hoping I get back.
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Miami
Another city whose reputation precedes it! Unlike New Orleans, the more soulful and cultural parts are a little harder to discover. Or maybe I should not conflate Miami and South Beach.  South Beach struck me as just about the same as many other tourist traps full of overpriced drinks and gaudy souvenir shops.  At times, it did truly feel like we were in Europe though: strolling the streets at 11 pm on a Wednesday night and everyone was awake, drinking at cafes or bars.  It may take a while to get the character of Miami...perhaps longer than we were there.  One afternoon on Key Biscayne and one night at one of Miami's hottest clubs and we were back on the road. 

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West Palm Beach
After spending time in the party capitals of New Orleans and Miami, it was time to hit the well-known party mecca of the Traditions, a retirement community in West Palm.  In all seriousness, it was great to spend some relaxing time with grandpa and enjoy some of the interesting nightly entertainment.  Being the youngest ones in there by a good 60 years, we got a fair amount of attention even got called out one night by the "Cowboy Cantor", an elderly man who "raps" about jewish culture (I use the term "rap" very, very loosely).  Unfortunately, he does not have the musical ability of jewish rappers Drake or Matisyahu.  See for yourself below:


Shout-out to all of our wonderful hosts and guides we've met up with since Texas: Nichole in NOLA, Mamie J in Ky and the Griffins in TN, Kerry in HOTlanta, Hattie in Ft. Lauderdale, Grandpa K in West Palm Beach and Peter and Andrea in Lakeland, Fl! It was fun to see all of you along the way. And Congrats to Mike and Julia whose wedding was beautiful and joyous!
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I love the smell of brisket in the morning.

4/6/2014

6 Comments

 
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Howdy from Texas! We’ve been on the road for about 6 days and we already have no idea what day it is.  We’ve said hello and goodbye to old friends as well as made some new ones. Here are some quick and dirty highlights of our first week:

  • Cahokia and Woodhenge (Apparently North America’s version of Stonehenge)…an anthropology student’s dream made real.  Our first World Heritage Site!
  • St. Louis and the Arch: Rainy! Time crunch and a fear of heights prevented us from going up in the Arch but we did get some St. Louis pizza.  Don't think it is going to overthrow Chicago or NY pizza as top pizza city anytime soon.
  • Little Rock: Friend visit #1, fellow Sidley alumni Aaron. No sooner had Aaron educated us about the former “gang activity” in Little Rock when there was a shooting 2 blocks away. Things are getting shady earlier than expected (but continued a few days later when an army full of cops arrived at our Super 8 motel after a reported shooting).

  • Texas! Hosted by the wonderful, talented, dynamic duo Monika and Patrick! Monika and Patrick introduced us to all imaginable TX wonders: kitten nuzzles, Austin, Top Golf, Big Red Margarita and small town TX discos. Seriously, amazing hosts. They showed us the coolest parts of Austin and even cheered on the Badgers at Austin’s Wisconsin bar (this game shall never be spoken of again).

Snow’s BBQ.

Down a winding country road lined with blue bonnets and oil rigs in tiny Lexington, Texas is Snow’s BBQ, which has been ranked the best BBQ in Texas several times over the last few years.  It’s only open for a few hours on Saturday and usually sells out of meat before noon so we hit the road early.  We pulled up and could hear the cow’s mooing next door. (Not creepy at all). Not a meat aficionado myself, the boys ordered and chowed down.  Even though the building and accouterments are pretty simple (to put it mildly), the brisket is not.  Jed was still feeling the effects of a Big Red Margarita the night before, however, Snow’s cured all.

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Other cool things about Texas. 75 mph speed limit, breakfast tacos and amusing bathroom graffiti.
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And We're Off!

4/1/2014

5 Comments

 
Hello from Motel 6!   After many months of planning, days spent at REI and hours of questioning our life decisions, we have finally embarked on our journey. Our last few days in Chicago have been spent shoving way overstuffed garbage bags down our garbage shoot, packing the rest of our lives into a 10 X 15 storage unit at a facility that looks like it could be a front for a lab in Breaking Bad and 
knocking off items on our Chicago food "Bucket List" (Weiner Circle, Dimo's Pizza and Do-Rite Donuts).
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We begin our trip with a six week road trip across the southern and eastern parts of the U.S.   With our odometer topping in just under 100,000, we are hoping to make it until mid-May without a call to AAA.  


We are looking forward to seeing our family and friends across the U.S. over the next few weeks, but we 
are already missing all of our Chicago friends. 

Now that we are off, our blog will be continually updated so be sure to check back often. And by the way, Motel 6 is charming!


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Bye Bye Chicago!
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The 5 W's of Wherever The Wind

3/26/2014

3 Comments

 
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Who: Caitlin and Jed!

Caitlin is from Kentucky and fell in love with traveling when she studied abroad in Belfast.  That love was one of many reasons she joined the Peace Corps and shipped off to Zambia, home of Victoria Falls, following college.  Traveling and living in Africa for two years was the adventure of a lifetime and only whet her appetite to experience as many cultures as she could. 

Jed is from the Albany, New York area and is an attorney/former rock band member/Shark Tank fan.  He was bitten by the travel bug when he first heard Toto's "Africa" at age six.  25 years later, he is following through on that dream to visit the continent.  

What: We quit our jobs (I repeat: WE QUIT OUR JOBS) and will be traveling first around America to see family and friends. Just our first six weeks will be as diverse as the Clinton Presidential Library, Bourbon Street, Harry Potter World, two weddings and Caitlin’s friends’ brand new baby!! Hopefully, the trusty Honda Accord will make it through the end of May when we ship out for our first International leg…Johannesburg, South Africa.

When:  April 1: Adios, Chicago…

            May 21st: South Africa!

            We plan on being gone for a year!  

Where: The ultimate Question!! I’m literally interested in going EVERYWHERE, so this was quite the difficult task. Afghanistan? Sounds beautiful minus the whole Taliban thing. We won’t make it there, for obvious reasons. However, we have a pretty great itinerary lined up and you can view it here.  We are keeping it open though and will add or remove places as we go.  To make it feasible, we’re trying to stick to more budget-friendly countries.

We would love love love to see any and all of you around the world! Let us know if you can make it happen and we’ll do what we can to meet you there! After spending 24/7 together, I have a feeling we would love some fresh conversation. ;-)

Why: Why not?? (amirite?) Insert your choice of many reasons here. All of those.

How: So much planning has gone into this.  Admittedly, Jed’s the planner and spent a lot of time crunching the numbers and maps and seeing how we could make it work. 

Deciding to quit my job was a major decision.  Probably the biggest decision of my life.  Most forks-in-the-road so far have been pretty lopsided; this is like chugging along at a solid 60 mph and throwing it in reverse.  Considering that, it wasn’t really the most difficult decision.  From the time I started my job, I started a savings account specifically for travel, fantasizing about the day I would be able to do exactly this.  I’m not sure I ever expected it to happen but here we are, unemployed with a one way ticket. 


-Caitlin

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