Day 4

The Longest Ride Ever (Pete wants it to be titled The Water is NOT UNDER the Bridge)

Sorry for the late post today (Gorski). Pete and I drove 16 hours yesterday from Chicago to Denver amounting to the worst driving experience of our collective lives. The trip got off to a rough start when we were leaving Chicago and Brendan vomited an entire mouthful of Vitamin water all over Pete's dashboard/radio/steering wheel/manuel shifter. Anyone who knows how anal Pete is about his car will know this was not a good way to start trip. Things, however, were looking up when we spotted the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile on Route 290 out of of Chicago. Another religious experience.

We have absolutely nothing to say about the trip itself. We drove through Illinois, Iowa (the consensus worst state in the union), and Nebraska. We didn't see anything but farmland, tractors, cows, roadkill, and more farmland. We kept getting out at rest stops and gas stations in our basketball jerseys and shorts and everytime people just stared, probably wondering where the two guys with the surfboards strapped to the roof took a wrong turn. The highlight of the trip was the 11 minute 30 second duet we did of Meatloaf's "I would Do anything for Love." Like our mother's always said, the voices of angels. Another interesting part of the trip was when we had to pull over, not because we needed gas, not because we needed to eat, but because 30,000 different kids of insects were splattered and sun-cooked to the windshield, making visibility close to zero. Took pete 15 minutes to clean the windshield at the gas station. This was while Brendan chatted with the gas attendant as to whether she was concerned they sold actual samarui swords and metal tipped dart guns at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, where she was alone on the job. She didn't seem to mind. Only in Nebraska.

The last two hours of the trip convinced Pete and I the plan maybe should have been re-worked to avoid a 16 hours drive through the 4 most boring states in the country. It was now around midnight, Brendan was downing RedBulls, splashing himself with water, and sticking his head out the window every thirty seconds to avoid falling asleep and leaving Pete alone to navigate the herds of kamakazi deer roaming the sides of the highway. Pete's eyes were literally glued to to the windshield while he continuously rubbed the Rosary beads hanging from this rearview mirror. However, we made it in one piece to down town Denver. Pete's friends, interestingly refered to as Conga-longa-donga and Fatty Fraz, took us to the Real World House Denver (which is still in one piece and looks pretty cool) and out for a few drinks. We are heading to the Rockies game tonight and then hit the road tommorow to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for some whitewater rafting and flyfishing.

Song of the Day - Meat Loaf: "I would do anything for Love" (Pete is phenomenal at the woman's solo)
Moment of the Day - Tie between the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile sighting and Pete's face when the Vitamin water was dripping from his entire dashboard.
Number of Times now Brendan has now checked the Treo - 55

Pete and B