kansas city here i come

can you visit a town solely because you like a song about it? i did already go to winslow, arizona, and the black mining hills of dakota, and both of them were good, great even! there was that one anniversary song about "drove north where i found you waiting in des moines" but honestly i don't know why anyone would wait here. actually, dare i say it, des moines might be actually a scary place! i went to the fareway for some food tonight and it was SCARY in there. they had like 3 cut watermelons and 10 peaches and the beauty product section was only about 1/10th of an aisle! can you believe that? most people here don't have teeth, and i saw 2 trucks (not even big rigs) that had those nasty balls hanging down from the back. those things make me sick! i ate one of the larabars from the cooler that i've had since at least miami, IT WAS NOT GOOD. at first i said "mmmm!" but then as i chewed and chewed, i realized something was very very off. i swallowed the one bite, and i am still alive. please pray for me. pray for me in des moines. i am staying at a hotel called the "bavarian inn" the inside is really dumpy but my door is actually inside instead of outside, and there is an "indoor pool" that i think i will use tomorrow morning. its pretty big and it looks very green. they gave me a coupon for a free glass of wine at the restaurant, but i am not going to use it. i feel sort of wasteful, but i fear that if i go to the bar, i may not make it out alive. i also cannot find the hbo channel. where are youuuuuuu??


truthfully iowa is so bad. everything here is bad. a toothless woman at the salvation army said "you know we aren;t all farmers here in iowa" but really, at least if they were all farmers they would be doing something productive. at least more productive than hanging some nasty rubber testicles from your car and calling it quits. also! some nasty man on i-35 made a kissing face at me today! yuck!

i cannot wait to get to missouri tomorrow. i have never been to missouri! they have a nicer license plate than iowa, and they have two cities i cannot wait to visit! kcmo! slmo!
i am alone again, and i feel fine about it so far. i cried a few times in the car today, but all these songs kept coming on about "home" in one way or another. my final destination is no longer unknown. my final destination is home. and its a strange feeling. i am trying not to think about the trip ending, but its sort of hard to do for whatever reason. people keep saying "well what are you going to do when the trip is over?" i dont know people, please stop asking!

i guess that is all for now. would you like to see a picture? i really dont have anything all that exciting. how about a video of me driving in iowahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!






adios amigos!

this is an invitation across the nation

well hello! been a while, eh?
i rest in minneapolis currently, and have been here for six days. i am leaving tomorrow and trying not to really think about continuing on alone, because, i will be fine, right? why even plague myself with trouble when there will be none, right?

so, there was a time, not long ago, when i forgot to write like every day, and i went to so many states! i think the last you heard of me i was in wyoming or south dakota. i feel like i should post the nicknames for all the states i have been to because its something i started and feel i should finish.
wyoming: the equality state
south dakota: mount rushmore state
iowa: the hawkeye state
nebraska: the cornhusker state
minnesota: the north star state

some nicknames make sense, others do not. iowa is a bad place and i am not looking forward to traveling to des moines tomorrow. DES MOINES! who even goes there?! iowa, in fact, smells quite bad, and if you are lucky when driving on i-35 you will see corn on only one side of your car and cows or lettuce or something else on the other side. more often than not there is corn on both sides and it is FLAT. i am sick of the people who want to tell me iowa is beautiful and hilly. SHUT UP. iowa is a bad place BAD and i am not pleased that i have to return, but this is the way my trip is unfolding. i also really wanted to visit milwaukee on this trip because laverne and shirley has made an undying mark on my brain, and thought that maybe i would be able to take a ferry from muskegon, michigan over to wisconsin, but it costs ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR DOLLARS round trip for EACH PERSON! what kind of sick and cruel world is this?! can't a girl just get to milwaukee?! i mean, let's be serious people! all i wanted to do was go to milwaukee and live out my schlitz dreams! why can't you just give me a break? what ever happened to we're gonna make our dreams come true, doing it our way? i hate you.

speaking of beer factories, i AM going to visit the anheuser-busch flagship factory in st. louis very very soon. st. louis is a place i am excited to visit for many reasons, which i will now list: budweiser, chuck berry, that damned arch that does actually look very very nice, and my friend amanda dinatale. those are more reasons than i had to visit other places, so...i think it will be a good place to be. i am going to kansas city purely because of the song "kansas city" and my friend patrick rocha, whom i may not even see if he holds true to his ways, and i am going there on friday, no doubt about it, with only two semi-good reasons! i am so very very excited for the budweiser factory tour, DESPITE the fact that anheuser-busch just sold themselves to some terrible belgian/brazilian company called inbev! what an awful name! they are now changing their name to anheuser-busch inbev. GROSS. i dont really support things like that, but i do, wholeheartedly, support budweiser, so...

wow! this is long! i should show you pictures but i am behind on those as well, go figure. i think i will get caught up in des moines, because, let's be honest, what else will i have to do?
so! hello from minnesota! i have picked up the accent and hope it goes away soon because i'd rather talk like i'm from texas than talk like i am from some godforsaken place like IOWA. christ! why is that place even in the union?!?

much much love from the road that doesn't appear to stretch forever anymore,
Bianca

p.s. 13,000 miles!

somewhere in the black mining hills of dakota

just a quick one before we are off to wind cave, crazy horse, mt rushmore and WALL DRUG!
in south dakota now. wyoming is a weird place WEIRD. we stayed in thermopolis at a giant mineral pool rv park. met a father and daughter who we originally thought were boyfriend and girlfriend and that they were extremely drunk. turns out they were just really country. omg! they told us lots of tales and i learned that driving a big rig is "not as glamorous as it seems" okay then!

now we are in south dakota which i already like more than wyoming. wyoming was TOO country for me (if that is possible) the population of the entire state is somethign like 473,000. i mean, come on!

so now we are making our way back to minneapolis, but i think we will stay in omaha for 2 days and then i can see sarah.

i need to go we have too much to do today!

xoxox,
B


p.s. i forgot to notify you when i crossed the 10,000 mile mark. it was long ago! i think i am almost up to 12,000 now!!

i've learned to take it well

well well well. we are now in montana! big sky state! we had to cross idaho, the gem state, to get here. and spent the night in rathdrum, idaho with a roommate of robin's, whitney, whose mom and dad own 6 cabins on the lower twin lake. it was really perfect weather and perfect swimming and sunning time. we had to leave around two to make it to glacier national park before dark. we barely did that after we stopped at a few rest stops that all had huckleberry in the name. got to glacier and picked our tent site (this is the hardest thing!) slept there and hoped a bear wouldn't eat us. woke up to swim in lake mcdonald, the largest lake in the park. a glacial lake! i basically waded in and then as soon as i got in to swim around i felt like my legs were paralyzed and i had to get out. sunned on a picnic table and looked at that clear lake for a while. then had to pack up and leave.

drove yesterday to missoula montana, passed the flathead lake. if you ever visit a lake i would say visit flathead. although coeur d'alene was also a very beautiful lake. but flathead! man! plus its huge. so drove around the east side of the flathead lake to get to missoula where we are staying in a kabin at a koa. this is our first koa experience, and other than having to pay for mini-golfing, i would say its been quite pleasant indeed. went out last night to a bar called "charlie b's" for a beer. beer is cheap in montana! had fun looking at everyone wearing athletic sandals and all kinds of hat and hair choices. woooo-weeee!

today we are off to big sky. and this is not a lie! the sky is massive and filled with colors you wouldn't believe! i would say that everything is definitely bigger in texas, and montana is truly big sky country. lately we've been having a lot of fun saying "this is god's country" if there is anywhere to believe something like that, i would say its probably montana. lots of cowboys here, and not the texas kind. these are real cowboys because this is REAL hick territory. we are even in the paris of montana! imagine that!

time to take a shower in kreepy koa shower. yikes!

love love and then more love,
bianca

oh, canada!

whelp, just returned from a real border crossing, not just taco bell this time. oh, canada!
man, canada sucks!

we got harassed by every heroin addicted bum in all of vancouver (and that is A LOT) food is so expensive and GODDAMMIT THERE MONEY IS WORTH MORE THAN OURS. this is realy REALLY a problem for me. we stayed in some nutty rv park because it was cheaper than any hostel except we slept on rocks! both woke up hurting and went to eat at a place called sophies that i thought was good but naomi was inconsolable. she hated it. i think it was because her omelette had dill in it. poor thing.
then we went to jericho park to swim in the water but the water was DIRTY! like worse than coney island! seriously!!! but the beach was okay and had big logs sitting on it and you could be topless, which was cool. so we tanned for an hour or so and then made a run for the border. waited in line at the border crossing for almost TWO HOURS! goddammit again! seriously. NO ONE was in line to get to canada. no one cares about canada! the line for USA was SO LONG! i was blasting songs about america and waving the flag at all the canadians. get your dopey license plates out of here!

now we rest back in seattle. its so comfy here! tomorrow we are going to IDAHO! can you believe it?! we've been in washington for over a week! that is insane!!! resting in one place too long is DANGEROUS. i really like it here, but know i will hate it here in the winter when it is incessantly raining. no thank you! right now it is very pleasant, and the swimming is fine! tomorrow we were going to go to coeur d'alene, but i think now we are going to a place called twin lakes, id, because whitney (robin's roommate) has some family cabins there and we can stay for free. why not!

i am having such a lovey time! i miss anyone who misses me, i promise!
everything i do, i do with love,
xoxo,
B

just a quick one before i go:

so...still in seattle. WOW. its been forever here! but life is good here in the land of milk and honey. today we went to denny blaine park on lake washington and layed out and went swimming!! it was cold but so so nice. i think we made a nice addition to our base tan as well.

we do have plans to leave this place, i swear! tomorrow we are going to drive to vancouver for a night. then BACK TO SEATTLE. ha! just for one quick night this time! and then off to idaho and beyond! we are going to camp for a night in thermopolis after we leave yellowstone. this i am so excited about. i almost cannot wait to get there but so much good stuff lays between here and there. i guess thats as per usual. there are so many things to see! we won't even go to utah at all, can you believe that? i think we will also miss north dakota. bummer. but montana, wyoming, and south dakota will get lots of action from us. hopefully we will not be eaten by any bears, this is my one true wish.

oh wait! i forgot! so after we swam in the lake we took a leisurely stroll over to kurt cobain's former residence on lake washington blvd and saw the house and also the park next door which serves as a makeshift memorial/shrine to kurt. man, was it good. there were 15 year olds wearing high top chucks and nirvana shirts sitting on this bench with all sorts of messages inscribed to kurt in its wood. it was everything i hoped for and more.

tonight robin's band flexions (flex-shions NOT flex-ee-ons)are playing in ballard and we are thinking of getting some mexican food beforehand. emily hanson and her boyfriend joey are in town, so we are playing family and doing nice things. awww.

so.....tomorrow i will be in canada! can you fucking believe that we get 98 cents to their dollar?! i seriously cannot believe that a money called "loonies" is worth more than the good ole greenback dollar bill. i am PISSED. i'll let you know how it goes with those happy canadians. now they actually have something to be happy about, assholes.

ooh baby i love your way

well well well. howdy from the evergreen state!
i have been in washington since the 3rd. we spent the 4th of july here, and walked about 5 miles that night. IT WAS CRAZY!

sunday we went up to the olympic peninsula to a town called port townsend where my friend robin's parents have a house. IT WAS SO NICE. very peaceful and the stars were great. i really love traveling. i guess we've established this already. BUT its nice being able to compare the stars in port townsend, wa to the stars in marfa, texas. man those stars in marfa, they were REALLY something. it was like some crazy incredible glittering maddness. so anyways, i have a running list in my head of the "best-of's"and things are slowly stacking up. i don't know if it is a good thing that i am keeping a running list of places as i go. basically a place becomes eligible even while i am still in the place. instant reflection! i guess i'll just go with it. see what happens.

still not sure what exactly is happening next. we were toying with the idea of going back to eugene for the country fair, then we thought maybe we'd go back to portland and spend time in hood river and then head to boise and east from there. but i think maybe we decided to go to canada? vancouver for a day or two and then drive south-east to glacier national park and then down to yellowstone from there. does that sound good??? TIP ME. PLEASE. why are people always telling me "oh i read your blog" but then no one ever comments?! i just don't understand. what is with you people?

also! we are watching reality bites (again). why is this movie so ingrained in my life? but now that i've actually been to houston, i can relate to this movie on a whole other level! its so much better! i am so happy!

okay so. i think its time to say goodnight. so goodnight! and see you again soon!!

if you want to love me...

ooooooooooh i almost forgot!
our price is right airs TOMORROW. July 3rd. Check your local listings!
TAPE IT!!!! PUT IT ON YOUTUBE!


ow my eyes are burning and i am at the subaru dealership in portland surrounded by my kind and waiting for transmission fluid change plus my front AND REAR differentials fluid change. who even knows what differentials are??? not me! but i just pretend so they think i am a gear head. i don't think they actually think i am.


more photos! and also there is even a video of a squirrel eating rose petals! wowwwwww!!!!

okay see you l8r.
B

do the walk of life

hello from the beaver state!
we are now in oregon. this is our 3rd day in this GREEN state.
today we are in portland, with my good friend mike, who moved back here about a year ago from brooklyn. yesterday we were in eugene staying with my friend's mom, alice. that was amazing and we slept outside in a bed under a canopy while it rained and hailed. what an experience! it was also like 40 degrees, but we survived!

stayed in eugene until about 8:30 talking with alice and her friend lynn, who are basically me and naomi in 30 years. christ! alice made us a delicious dinner and it was honestly hard to leave, but the fact that the bathroom flooded with water made it slightly easier to make an exit. drove to portland in the dusk light and arrived around 10:30. went out for a bit in the northwest area, and met jan (our swiss friend that just keeps popping up everywhere) and his friend joe at a bar over there. had a few beers and then continued driving over bridges to get back here to mike's giant house! woke up in a giant comfy bed and started the day right! mike made us pancakes and now we are planning our day.

its really been a whirlwind of days and places, and i am not quite sure where i was one week ago. its really crazy living like this, and i feel very used to it, which is strange. its normal to me to sleep in a new place every night, and learn someone's house for one day and then leave. its nice in a way to have no attachments, but when those attachments present themselves, they are hard to leave.

everyone is waiting on me, as usual. so i'd better wrap this up and go.
please visit my flickr! please! there is so much there! the redwoods! the pch! alice's house! us inside a tree!
come on now! get there fasssst!!! http://flickr.com/photos/happycuties/


love you dudes!