Yoo 360 - HELGA State Sign Quest

HELGA, as a state sign picture quest, was kind of a failure. We thought the east coast was hard...the Midwest/Great Lakes presented far more problems. So many were on bridges! Or we were packed in traffic and couldn't get over!

We had to get creative.

Here you go:

Indiana wasn't too bad. Minus having to park and then dart across several intersections and more lanes than I can count on my fingers.

Kentucky wasn't a favorite. The camera is set on a tripod between us, taking multiple shots a second, and I may or may not be driving 65 mph down the highway whilst turning when I can to display that glamorous side shot...

(still need to get that overbite corrected...)

Ohio was the same story. Though it came unexpected and we had to turn around and get stuck in traffic all over again to nab it.

We should have stopped here and counted this barn as the state sign. Way better.

Illinois was at rush hour. But we pulled over for this quickie.

Wisconsin was a dream. At a rest stop! No illegal maneuvers required! We posed and reposed and took shot after shot, dancing for all the cars and trucks passing.

(two honked)

Minnesota wasn't half bad. We did have to pull over on the shoulder but they have a cool state sign and very little traffic!

Michigan was kind of a cheat. This is the best we came up with. No, we are not flipping the camera off. Those are our index fingers...and if you look closely you'll see the smiley faces drawn on them.

These states need to be more accommodating! It's like they don't know there are people wanting pictures with their signs!

I have now visited all but 2 states: Arkansas and Alaska. Weird combo, right? I have pictures with about 40 of them.  Need more road trips!

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 348 - And So Begins HELGA

The Alishafriend and I set off on HELGA today. It's our once a year, state sign road trip photo quest.

Last year it was EASST. The Eagerly Anticipate State Sign Trip.

We flew into Philadelphia, rented a car (dubbed tanger prime, a sparkling new toyota camry), and then traveled all along the East coast (of course). State sign acquisition was around 15 and trip miles on the car hit over 4,000 after 10 days.

It was a success.

The year before that it was the Florida road trip.

We only got 6 state signs on that trip. But we camped on the beach for a week and saw a night space shuttle launch. Also a success.

This year we're flying into Chicago, renting a car, and trying to touch just about every state north of I-80 or around the Great Lakes.

It's dubbed HELGA.

HELGA doesn't stand for anything yet. It's just a name the Alishafriend blurted out under the influence of a pizza high and it's stuck

Though the Gregfiance (fiance!) insists it stands for "Highly Energetic Losers Going Away". He's not real thrilled to lose me for a couple weeks. Can you blame him? But I got him a nice little surprise to open once I leave and I'm hoping that softens the blow.

And that's that. Here's to hoping HELGA's a safe, memorable adventure!

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 323 - The New Jersey Story

Happening on the EASST adventure over a year ago now (with the alishafriend), this is the story of New Jersey. Or rather, the story of the most difficult state we've acquired to date.

The first thing to note about New Jersey is, it's expensive to get out of. All the bridges into New Jersey our free. But leaving New Jersey?

That's going to cost you.

Over $20 in our case.

We did accidentally end up on roads that forced us onto bridges during rush hour traffic a couple times...clearly we didn't know where we were going. And New Jersey milked us for it.

Not a good first, second, and third impression.

Our first foray into New Jersey got us this:

A state sign over a bridge. Less effective! Now, we'll pull over in less-than-ideal conditions to grab the pictures, but bridges are kind of an unspoken "No Go". Life value slightly higher than state sign quest.

Bitter that we'd failed on the first attempt (and lost over $20), we were determined to find a New Jersey state sign NOT over a bridge.

One wrong turn and another $4 later, we'd found it. And during the last few hours of EASST too!

The only problem was that it was in the middle of the convergence of several freeways leading onto, you guessed it, a bridge.

I won't detail exactly what we did but, sufficeth me to say, it probably wasn't legal and it definitely was not the safest thing we've ever done.

Ok, I'll give you the short of it:  abandoned parking lot, sketchy part of town (though i'm convinced everywhere in new jersey is sketchy...), and several mad dashes with camera equipment.

Standard pose.

Failed jumping pose.

An attempt to human-letter the state abbreviation.

"Hey Kyoo, which way does J face?"

*dork stamp* 

Apparently I can't process that on the fly!

Go Kyoo.

While these weren't our best pictures ever, they were still pictures with an actual state sign and we were satisfied. Also, remember the area was sketchy.

More mad dashing, praises of gratitude that the rental car (tanger prime) was still intact, and we were ready to go.

Wait, no we weren't. We decided we were hot, so we took our pants off in this abandoned parking lot (shorts underneath, let's not get scandalous here) and then we were ready to go.

I debated relaying the whole story of what happened as we were trying to leave New Jersey, but it's really more scary than it is funny and I don't feel like detailing it online! We learned a valuable lesson that day about how desperate some people are though. And I got a stern talking to from the Gregbeau and probably the Kyoo mom too about taking unnecessary risks.

(but we really needed that state sign!)

I kind of hate to say this but thru it all, I developed less-than-fond feelings for New Jersey! Shortly after the escapade we found out that Camden, NJ (we realized later that that's where we were...) is one of the most dangerous cities in the US. And let's not forget how easy it is to get into New Jersey but how expensive it is to leave! And most of their state signs are on bridges which is so inconvenient. If you know of any redeeming qualities about New Jersey, do share because I can list zero. New Jersey is not favorite!

The Campbell Soup Company headquartered there might lend to a more favorable impression...if I was in love with their soups. But I'm a store band kind of girl when it comes to soup.

In other news, I am pleased to report I have finished filing my taxes like an honorable citizen. And I was 99.9% sure that I was going to owe money this year, but TurboTax worked it's magic and I ended up with a small return. Can't hate that!

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 317 - Of a Trip to Idaho

I did some traveling today.

To the Idaho.

Easter and family reunion and such.

The cool part about it (other than getting to see the family!) was getting the Idaho state sign. In my inspired-by-the-Alishafriend quest to capture a picture next to every state sign, I was still in need of Idaho.

And Utah.

Which is really quite puzzling since I lived in Idaho for several years and hit both of these states for one thing or another at least once a year since then.

I'm sure I've taken pictures before, but they were lost. Idaho and Utah are officially in the book now!

This was my chauffeur.

We talked all about her bustling college social life and it had me just a teeny bit jealous. I mean, she's clearly mastered the balancing act of being studious and social. I never quite mastered that in college (the social part)...and probably still haven't. But I'm super glad she's having fun. It doesn't feel like it, but college passes too quick. You've got to make the most of those years!

That being said, I might not get fed homemade icecream by candlelight at 2 in the morning or break out into spontaneous pie fights anymore, but I also don't have to take finals in a couple weeks either.

What now??

This Morgansister wears big earrings.

And jumps for pictures too.

It's cold and windy here. Nothing kills my desire to run like cold and wind. There was snow in Salt Lake, too. Just for me! <-- if there was a sarcastic font, that would have been typed in it. and bolded.

If these conditions don't improve, I might be able to justify taking a few days off training...

But it still looks pretty.

As does this dude.

He's trying to contain his excitement here. It's kind of a big thing when you get to see me, after all.

Have a great day :-)

Kyoo 174 - Florida and the Space Shuttle

Road trippin'!

Every now and again I get these ideas that just take off. This one, quite literally. I was playing on the NASA website one night and the next thing I knew I was planning a week-long camping trip to watch a shuttle launch. And I actually went through with the idea. I tried to convince several people to come with me but in the end just Alisha was crazy enough to agree. Which turned out to be a good thing because we were pretty stellar travel buddies and definitely did not have room in Casper for much else!

So, I got Casper all tuned up, bought tickets for the launch, reserved the campground, made extensive packing lists, practiced some Dutch ovening and finally hit the road on April 3rd. Oh yes. And I installed a new stereo in Casper. Almost by myself too. I had to call in a friend from work to help crimp the wires together but I was quite pleased with my attempt. And I LOVE the stereo because it integrates so well with my phone!

So now on to the pictures, in no particular order.

Can you see the space shuttle?!?! Can you see it?!?!

I calculated it up later and realized that we spent 24+ hours at the Kennedy Space Center over the course of 3 days. Mostly because we had to sleep in line there to get onto the causeway...but also because I was in space heaven. The gift shop! The Saturn V Museum! The Astronaut Hall of Fame! The Vehicular Assembly Building! The shuttle launch experience! That's not even all. There was too much to do and I was like a kid in a candy shop.

And there it goes! Space shuttle Discovery carrying the STS-131 crew to the International Space Station. The launch happens so fast. You wait for hours, crossing your fingers that it doesn't get scrubbed and then get really excited when all the final "go's" come in and the clock starts ticking at T -9 minutes. That 9 minutes flies by. Next thing you know they're announcing that the fuel tank is being jettisoned and the excitement is over. But the few seconds when the light is blinding and the shuttle is just taking off is pretty incredible. Especially when the sound finally reaches you.

Ascending in a blaze of fiery light! This is about the time when you finally "hear" the launch. It's so cool.

Beautiful contrails from the launch. It's funny because they warn you incessantly that these "may" contain trace amounts of harmful chemicals that might cause skin irritation. Bring it on. That'd be a cool story.

Oh the Mercury 7. Do I look legit?

Posin' in the Apollo command module!

We're here! This was a very happy moment in the trip.

Alabama!

Mississippi!

All in all, we covered Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. We spent about 48 hours driving and slept at rest stops in my car 3 nights. Never plan on sleeping in Georgia. They have hardly ANY rest stops and they're not that cool. Mississippi and Florida on the other hand are very accommodating. Mississippi even had free wifi!

We camped at Jetty Park whilst on space coast. I don't have the pics for that on my computer yet, but it was way fun. We got to watch the big cruise ships leave port, see dolphins swimming just feet away, and boogie board in some pretty big waves. The beach was very nice. And we camped next to some fun people from Georgia. And yes, I was a pansy and slept on an air mattress. The nights I actually slept...

Have a great day :)