Day One: Git 'er done! (By Kim)

Hello from Vineland, NJ! I'm sitting in Rebecca's friend Vincent's kitchen, catching up on blogging for you guys so I won't have the whole week to deal with when I get home. Rebecca and Vincent are in his living room listening to music and watching videos on YouTube.

We had a good first day. We hit the road around noon and had a smooth ride from Boston to Trenton, NJ. We were both thanking all the powers that be for the fact that I'd gotten my car's AC fixed a few days before. Was it HOT ENOUGH FOR YA yesterday? How about today? Yeah.

Here we are getting ready to set out yesterday. That's me, Rebecca, Iggy (on roof) and Buffy (my Camry). Iggy has already been to NY once before (without me!) and so we thought he'd be a cool tour mascot, since he's already accustomed to traveling...


Here is Iggy (right) with Karleto (left) in NYC last year...

For some reason, the phrase from this blog's title was in my head and I said it once or twice as we hit the road, and it stuck. We ended up using it repeatedly throughout the day and night. I fessed up right away that I had no idea where I'd gotten it from, but was certainly stealing it from SOMEWHERE. We found out later it's a Larry the Cable Guy thing, which is interesting since I never watch him.

I drove the first leg of the trip since it's my car and I like driving... Rebecca took a bunch of pictures of the road as we hit various milestones. Here are just a few...



Here I am looking like a big goof at a rest stop in Connecticut.



The two photos above are of the Army convoy we passed... there were about six different crazy-ass vehicles that we weren't quite fast enough to take a picture of. We were initially alerted to the convoy by the last vehicle, which had a big banner on it saying, "convoy ahead." We thought, "They really have to make a big announcement about it?" Then as we pulled up past the tail vehicle and realized how many big ol' Humvees and whatever were part of it, it made a little more sense. We later passed this same convoy again, pulled over on the side of the road fixing a blown tire in one of the vehicles. And the "convoy ahead" car was at the FRONT of the pack in the breakdown lane. We thought they should be able to flip the sign over and have it read "convoy behind."


Here is Rebecca the Pep Girl, squeegie-ing my windshield while I fill the tank.



The mother of all IKEA's...

A glimpse of Iggy in the dash, and the opposing lane of traffic... kind of surreal, no?


Look, it's a "Sky Full Of Shoes!"


Preparing to pass through the city...


Pathmark... we don't have those here.


I love how the sides of the Geo Washington Bridge look like a rollercoaster.


At this point Rebecca and I switched, and she drove the rest of the way into Trenton. I had only gotten about four hours of sleep and was starting to feel it. So I took a nap, and she drove, and that made it really hard to take any more pics of the road. We did manage to grab this last one...

Are we there yet? YES!

Okay, so I have to tell you this story because it's SO ridiculous. Becks and I went to dinner at a place called Graziella Ristorante, a new restaurant in the same complex The Cookie Cottage is in. We were enjoying our dinners, just chatting, and Rebecca was telling me the story of buying the new shirt she was wearing, a perfectly fabulous (and feminine!) tailored white shirt with thin black vertical stripes. She had been standing in line and some teenage girl looked at her and said, "Oh, my dad has that shirt," in kind of a thinly-veiled bitchy way. Rebecca said to her, "Well, I doubt it would fit him." What she WANTED to say was, "I hope he has better manners than you." JUST as she said these words to me, the man at the table across from us let out the LOUDEST fart I have ever heard in public. It was like literally ten seconds long, and cued EXACTLY to follow her manners statement. It took us a stunned second to absorb the fact that it had actually happened, and then we were killing ourselves trying to stifle our laughter so as not to embarrass ourselves or him. It was very funny and we referenced it all night, which spawned many giggle fits as it got later and later and we got more and more slap-happy.

This is the interior of The Cookie Cottage, where we had our first gig of the tour. What an interesting place! Sue, the owner, used to own a vintage furniture store and antique business, as well as a bakery. Over the course of time for a variety of reasons, she found it necessary to assimilate the two, with this fabulous result. Check out the furniture! We had excellent goodies there as well: a peanut butter and chocolate brownie for me and a chocolate cigar for Rebecca. Yum!

Another view of The Cookie Cottage.

Our gear, patiently waiting to be loaded out at the end of the night.

We had a great first night, and ended with an hour drive from Trenton to Vineland to meet up with Vincent and crash. VERY comfy Aerobed accommodations. I slept SO well. I'd also like to say that bringing my little fan with me was the smartest move I've ever made. Not only for the fact that it was 9-zillion degrees, but for the comforting white noise I would definitely have missed.

Quote of the day, by Rebecca, in response to my asking if she had any chocolate in her bag of snacks: "If I ever leave the house without chocolate, check my pulse."