What happens after Chicago...

...is a mystery to us all, to be honest with you. We finally left Chicago around 3pm on Thursday (yesterday/today? It's already starting to blur a little bit). We pulled into St. Louis around 7:30 or so. St. Louis was part of the original plan and it seemed like an awesome city. Only problem is that we rolled in around dinner time and all of the good BBQ joints (according to both friends of mine who made suggestions and good old yelp.com) were already closed or about to be soon. We pulled up to a place downtown that had a sign out front that said BBQ and live music. Perfect.  Exciting. We parked the car and headed inside only to sit down and be told they were out of ribs tonight. Lose. Since we are pretty strapped for cash and had some leftovers from lunch in the car we told them thanks but no thanks and headed out.

We finished our sandwiches in the car and headed over to the arch, only to find there is absolutely nowhere to park near that thing. Come on St. Louis, I want so badly to love you (quiclky, but truly), cut me some slack. We illegally parked in front of some serious looking government building, did some guerilla photography and hopped on the 44 west.

All I can tell you now is that we are about an hour and a half outside of Tulsa, OK and there's a giant golden statue of an oil driller there. Apparently it's the largest stand alone statue in the world. I cannot contain my excitement... or it could be the overly excessive caffeine intake.

Love.

So far so good!

The weather channel predicted awful weather all the way from Buffalo to Chicago. We started out in Buffalo with some sleet and rain, but not such a big deal. Somewhere between Erie and Cleveland there was some snowy sleet. Now we are west of Cleveland and I think I can even see some blue skies peeking through the clouds.  It's all good so far! Here are some pictures:

Buffalo, N.Y.

Arrived in Buffalo last night at 2am. My train pulled into Depew two hours late, who knows why. Luckily the bottle of wine I bought didn't suck too bad, and I had some tasty snacks with me :-)

Ran around town doing errands all day. Spent some time with Elisa's dog Sadie. Got to go to Wegman's, the most amazing grocery store of them all. It's a little funny being in Buffalo again in the winter. When Gordon and I come for Christmas we stay in Springville which is a totally different story. It's the country side, lots of snow, horses. Here in Williamsville I'm reminded of college but it doesn't feel like it was ever home. I'm not having a bad time at all, actually I'm really enjoying the company and the food is great. Just noticing the lack of nostalgia for a place I spent a lot of time in.

Today was Elisa's wonderful mother's birthday so we had a lovely dinner. Then we packed up the car. All ready to go! The plan is to leave for Chicago tomorrow morning at 7 and brave this Midwestern snow storm. Let the adventure begin!

Love.

Peace out home slice.

Farewell for now, NYC. I swiped my metro card to get on the M train leaving a balance of $0.05. There was a man in a leather jacket who stared at me the entire ride from Marcy avenue to Herald Square.  On 34th street I deflected looks of interest and criticism, as well as one Tibetan monk. I'm hoping that is not going to give me bad Karma. In my defense he looked kind of shady or maybe like he was gonna try and sell me something. Picked up a bottle of wine that looks like it's probably going to suck and I had Gordon put a copy of Argo on my phone before I left. Now I'm on the train at the beginning of an 8 hour ride to Buffalo, N.Y. and my stomach has fInally stopped flipping with nervous anticipation.

I wonder if I will be so critical of Tibetan monks when I return.

Love.