TravelStream™ news feed for member triptalk on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/triptalk en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:43:08 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1192227780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1192227780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1192227780/tpod.html Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:43:08 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

 I couldn't leave Madison without a trip up to Minneapolis to see my good friends Emmett and Julia.  I borrowed Andrea's minivan and took the four hour trip up on friday (with a stop at the Norske Nook for pie and meatballs) and hung out in the yellow house for the weekend.  All three girls, Louisa, Ella, and Margaret were tons of fun, and of course, my godson Charlie was a squeeking laughing creature, cutest guy ever.  It was great to catch up. We even had a night out, drinks at the bowling alley place that I can't remember the name of, and then Samples for dinner.  Minneapolis is truly a cool town, all the people look earthy and hip all at once.  A walk around the lake, hours doing the puzzle from kenya with the girls and playing train with Charlie, I loved it all and can't wait to go back!     
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1192830900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1192830900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1192830900/tpod.html Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:16:45 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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San Francisco, California, United States

 So, this will be my last entry for this trip.  After arriving in San Francisco I got caught up in the flurry of job interviews and apartment hunting. I had very good luck on the latter, got the first place I saw and love it.  It is a little hard to get to, big hill, stairs down, path over, then three flights up...like a tree house almost.  The job hunt continues though and I will follow my friend Wei's advice to take it slow.  She says if I run out of food she will send me rice!  I finally unpacked my bag and put it in the closet, but the place won't feel like home until I get all my stuff from southern california (cross your fingers that the truck makes it under the tree).I had such a wonderful year.  Met alot of nice people and have an incredible amount of images of places and faces stored away in my head.  It may take awhile for it all to sink in.  I can still see each room I spent the night in, all the great walks I took, crazy boat rides, views of waterfalls, "fasting food" lunches in ethiopia, the first sight of old friends in unfamiliar places, oh, I could go on and on.  Everyone who can should do a trip like this.  It leaves me wanting all my familiar stuff and not wanting it, all at the same time.  It is confusing, but great.Stay tuned for the next trip! (I just met a lady from Russia who made me a great diagram of a loop I can do around scandinavia and russia...hmmmmmm)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190212020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190212020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190212020/tpod.html Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:17:41 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Okay...the days of lugging the bag around are nearly at an end.  I have to say I am a bit sad about it.  I have a whole 'nother loop in my head that I could do right now!  But I also sort of miss having a kitchen and a closet, and a year of always talking to strangers and wondering how I am getting from A to B can get tiring.  But I know, once I get a place and have stuff put away I am going to be ready to go again.So, I am here in Wisconsin, alternating between staying with my dad and my sister.  It is fun to be able to just flop on the sofa or stare into the the fridge. It is beautiful fall weather here, sunny days and changing leaves, great for just sitting out on the deck with a book and listening to the wind blow through all the trees.I told myself this whole year that once I got to Wisconsin I would have to enter reality again...so I have stayed true to my word and resumes have already been sent out.  I am looking for work as a landscape architect in the san francisco area which is pretty competitive, so cross your fingers for me!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190131920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190131920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190131920/tpod.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:29:06 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Springfield, Missouri, United States

My old friend Ken Rutherford lives in Springfield Missouri.  We have known each other since the Peace Corps, so that makes it about 20 years!  His wife Kim is great, and so are their kids: Hayden, Campbell, Duncan, and Lucy.  It was so much fun to see all of them and just sort of pop into their daily life in the middle of the week.  Ken and I went to Hayden's 7th grade football game (the stands were packed, sort of bizarre, but cool) and then all of us went to dinner in town.  Ken is super busy with writing a book, his travelling and being a super devoted dad, and Kim is keeping everyone all together, and...going to nursing school, I think that is amazing.  It was a quick visit, but so satisfying to see them and catch up.  It will be interesting to see where this gang ends up in the next year!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189696800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189696800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189696800/tpod.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:11:57 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Williamsburg, Virginia, United States

I decided to go down through Delware along the coast, mostly because I had never been that way and was curious.  I thought I would make it all the way to Williamsburg in one day, but ended up staying in some random holiday inn express in Maryland.  That seems to be the theme of the road trip, fake old villages and super bland highway motels.  The drive was pretty, the coast was very pretty and breezy and I saw alot of crabs.Williamsburg was very pretty too, almost too pretty really.  It is a real town sort of made into a fake town.  But people still live in alot of the houses mixed in with houses you can visit or that are 'bookbinders' and 'wigmakers'.  So the houses you visit are the real houses where first leaders of the country lived, so that is interesting.  And they do alot of reenactments of events to get you into the mindset of the people of the time.  Watching Benedict Arnold come into town on his horse to announce that the British were reoccupying was cool.  They had villagers in the crowd that would talk to you about their reactions and yell and hiss at benedict arnold.  He announced that the slaves could come with the british and be freed.  this led to another sort of street play behind the coffee shop where the slaves gathered to discuss whether they should go or not.  So it was sort of like this progessive theater in the streets, it was really good.  The College of William and Mary was also really beautiful, what a nice place to go to school.  Williamsburg deserved more time than I gave it, but I had a good time.I kept the Jefferson theme going and visited Monticello in Charlottetown.  This was Jefferson's retirement home set on the hills where he grew up.  It was beautiful, another place I have always wanted to visit.  Also seeing University of Virginia campus, designed by Jefferson was cool, another awesome place to go to college.  The dorm rooms on west green were amazing...I would live in one of those now!I kept going west, and south, along the blue ridge parkway.  It was such a pretty sunny day, perfect for that drive.  I mostly just drove and drove.  Spent the night in sleepy Cumberland Gap, then kept driving all day on the 17th as far as Russelville in Kentucky.  On the way I saw another shaker town, and more Amish.  This country has more of those people than I'd ever imagined!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189608660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189608660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189608660/tpod.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:20:32 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States

I have always been curious about the amish and wanted to see for myself the buggies and the beards.  I have seen movies about them, but I just needed to see them for myself to know they were really real and that people could really live like that surrounded by cars and ipods.  So my first sight was of a guy with a team of horses cutting down corn stalks, straw hat, beard and all.  I loved it.  Then I saw another guy plowing with horses, then kids at a school (again straw hats and bonnets, black pants and long blue dresses) then a lady in a buggy....I saw alot of people just by driving around all the farm roads.  You could always spot an amish farm because of the huge line of drying laundry, big pretty white farmhouse, two silos, and of course, no cars.  As satisfying as it was to see this, it wasn't really enough.  I really wanted to be able to just sit on their porch and talk to them, but I don't think that is very easy to do and of course I don't want to bother them.  I just can't believe that they can pull this lifestyle off, I admire them.  They seem to live well and have very pretty farms compared to their trailer park neighbors.  So, I am glad I came, I guess I am just going to have to rent some more movies to quench my curiosity.also, I don't have very good pictures, mostly because they don't like having their picture taken and I didn't want to be a lame tourist and annoy them.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189520340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189520340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189520340/tpod.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:50:58 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Hopewell Junction, New York, United States

I ended up the day of fake village visiting at the home of my friends, Scott and Felicia Black, and their cute kids, Sofia and Leo.  I have known scott since junior high, so that is about a billion years.  So, I had never seen his place in new york, so it was fun to hang out with them and get an idea for their sort of new life back east.  I planned on one night there, but then scott said I should tag along with him to work and he could drop me in the subway station in the Bronx.  then I could play in the city all day and meet him for the ride home.  It was a great idea!  I wandered around manhattan all day, mostly in the village and shopped and ate and avoided downpours by ducking into bagel shops.  Wierdly, it happened to be September 11th.  I saw a few giant groups of police officers on bikes  riding to the trade center site.  So, despite the eerieness of the day, I had fun, a delicious diner breakfast, long walk down broadway, a peanut butter blt, and I found an awesome gnome at ABC home.I got the commuter train up to White Plains and met Scott for another fun night of just hanging out and a great dinner by felicia.  It was great seeing them and catching up.  Thanks you guys!Oh, I forgot.  On the day I left their house I visited the Storm King Art Center.  I totally forgot it was nearby until I had passed it on the highway (not far from Westpoint) It is a place I have wanted to go since college and for some reason had never made it out there.  so that fits in pretty well with the theme of the whole trip, getting to all those missed places.  I loved it, I really  loved it...and it was such a beautiful day to be there. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189431900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189431900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1189431900/tpod.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:17:17 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Sturbridge, Massachusetts, United States

I got a one way rental car in Salem and decided to hit the road to get myself to Wisconsin by the 19th.  I am so tired of buses and hauling my bags, this is the perfect solution.  So, I left Aunt Sue's, she was off to Maine to play bridge, and I was off to New York.  I decided to stop on the way at the fake colonial town of Sturbridge village.  It is a collection of village buildings from all over new england from the 1830's.  People are dressed up doing chores and demonstrating crafts...I loved it!  I love the fake village concept, and this one felt real to me.  Maybe because it was after labor day, not crowded.  It felt quiet and rustic and really natural.  I continued on and saw the fake Shaker village in Western Massachusetts.  Also good, but no dressed up people.  This was a different feeling than sturbridge since the shakers were creating a utopian religious environment, no posessions, communal living, celibacy (that's why there aren't any more shakers!) and simplicity was their code. It was interesting to see the same crafts (tin lamps, redware pottery, workworking...) since it was the same time period, but the Shakers took it to another level with their beautiful craftsmanship, maybe those crazy 24 prayer sessions helped their design process.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1188677820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1188677820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1188677820/tpod.html Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:47:21 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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Marblehead, Massachusetts, United States

 So, I took a bus from PEI and headed down to Bangor Maine.  It was all day and I had never been to Bangor.  It felt good to come back into the U.S.  I wanted to get my passport stamped at the border, but there was a crazy hobo on the bus who had tried to cross the border the day before and got rejected, so he was trying again.  So they really didn't want to bother giving me a stamp since they had to deal with that guy.    Back to the world of crazy people on buses.  The rest of the world uses buses, I mean normal people take the bus since not everyone has a car.  But it seems like in the U.S. all the total loser wierdos get on the bus.  On the way from Bangor to Portsmouth I heard some great conversations about the homeless shelter in Bangor.  Maybe I could have stayed there...I am homeless.  Anyway, Bangor was a bit scruffy, I can see how Stephen King can get inspiration there.  Portsmouth New Hampshire, on the other hand, was great..full of nice shops and restaurants and nice old buildings, I really liked it.But nothing tops getting off the train in Salem, Mass.  and seeing my Aunt Sue standing there.  What a great feeling to be back in Marblehead and see her and just know I can relax!  We have had a wonderful time lounging and eating and watching tennis (U.S. Open)  Played a little croquet, went sailing on my cousin Peter's boat, Incision, and went on a day trip to Boston on the ferry with Lily and Don.  It is wonderful to be here, (I am in neighbor Carol's basement now typing away, it is boiling hot out today!)  I am definitely sick of the looneys on the bus, so Monday I have a rental car and will continue the journey west...to Wisconsin with some pit stops on the way.  Real life is looming ahead of me (just met with the tax guy yesterday!).  I need to think about a job and a place to live, but am happy with a slow transition.  So, the journey continues,there are still alot of places I haven't seen here!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190644800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190644800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/triptalk/heading_west/1190644800/tpod.html Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:32:11 -0400 Leslie's Adventure Around the World

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St. Pierre et Micquelon, France

    After spending the night in Fortune with the very alcoholic B&B owner and and hearing all about her miserable alcoholic husband...I decided to go to France.  Luckily it was only an hour ferry ride away.It is hard to believe that France still wants to keep these hunks of rock off the coast of Newfoundland.  About 60% of the people that live there are contracted government workers.  It looks like the towns on newfoundland, but it is France.  People speak french, wear espadrilles and eat baguettes.  there is not much to see after having been in the outports, but I still had to fulfill my curiosity and check it out. I had a fun two days speaking french again, eating a chevre chaud salad and strolling around.  This place was settled by Basque fishermen, so there is a heavy basque influence. (guys in town playing on these big open racketball-like courts with wooden paddles, I can't remember the name of the game)My original plan was to leave here by boat, then get a bus to get the big ferry (overnight) back to nova scotia...but the idea of all that really turned me off.  Lucky for me I found out there was a flight going the next day to Sydney, perfect.  Even luckier for me, I met a very nice couple (the Maclellans) on the plane who invited me to stay with their family in Sydney til I got my bus the next morning.  They were wonderful, we went to the beach with all the kids, had a fire in the backyard and took me to my bus in the morning.  I don't think I will ever be able to repay hospitality like that! merci mille fois!
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