Sunday, July 8, 2007

...friday night darkness...

...i was packing up at home when john showed up at my door, "we gotta leave now"... the bus was parked right outside my door...

John was suppose to call me when he was picking up christian...anyways... i wasnt packed as usual... so had to hurry it up... once done, if you can call it that, we drove up to 'giggle brook' to meet up with the rest of the people...

as it turns out... once everyone got together, we decided not to stay the night... but get a head start and leave right then...

...at giggle brooks we had to wait for a couple of us to show up... Wii kept us company... a bowling competition to be exact... some of us were also trying to get a power nap...esp Frisky 'P' aka tyler, since he had to help out with the driving...



once ronnie and whalen showed up... our journey began...

a view from the back of the bus:



another from the opposite end:



this is how we rolled off from amherst... around 1 am... we will be reaching cleaveland,OH in the afternoon sometime... we just had to make a little stop at the Hadley gas station... and we are off...





...drivign mostly on the Mass Pike, we entered New York state around 3am... the fact that i left home... and our journey that we were crossing the coutry was sinking in... by now me and john have had more then 3 redbulls to keep us awake...



...an hour and a half into New York our bus stalled... we pulled off by the side of the road and popped the hood to see what was going on... me and john took apart the air intake to see if the air duct was jammed... it wasnt... within 5 mins the highway patrol showed up... they left as quick once we told them we were taking a breather and will be off as soon as we can start the bus... john, cisco and i were the only people awake in the bus... john kept playing about the engine... cisco was playin his mandolin...






...i was anxiously awaiting our first sunrise... ronnie was awake now... our bus stalled for the last time right as the sun was coming up... but once we were on the move... the rest went well...





...before long we had our first breakfast stop in NY... together with a fuling and cleaning break...





...although we were all awake... some of us went back to bed... and we were off on the road again... driving driving... at somepoint we decided we werent going to stop at cleaveland... but rather drive straight through to chicago... and stay there a night and most of the next day... at our pace... we would arrive chicago late evening that day... so... we had a good plan...

Thursday, May 24, 2007

...last days...

...so we had a BBQ last weekend... just to get to know the people on the trip... John had a nice time showing the neighborhood kids the bus...




we should have a good trip...



...the Leukemia and lymphoma society finally sent me a bunch or banners to hang on the bus and literature to give out... hopefully we will get to get some donations together by the time we get back...



...we will be leaving on saturday... early mmorning... hopefully i will get to make a last update tomorrow night... before going off to our little adventure...

wish us luck...

Thursday, May 17, 2007

...the start...

...The summer will have a great start... It will be very different from all the other summers what was... or the ones that are yet to come...

9000 miles of open road...
15 kids...
21 days...
27 states... here is our route

...it all started with John... read his interview:
Daily collegian Article

it is all coming together... here is an update of what is going on with the bus...

john (under the bus) is clearing out the back of the bus... hopefully a couch and some carpet is going to take its place...

we will be having a meeting this saturday... hopefully everyone is going to be there... check back here for updates... or photos: my flickr set

...during our trip across the nation... we will also be trying to collect money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society... I am still trying to get in touch with them and see how to go about doing that...

hopefully we will have everything ready to go off by the 25th... we are looking for sponsors to help us set up wireless internet and GPS tracking for our yellow bus so that we can keep a live blog... so keep checking back... wish us luck...