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In Rural Retreat for a little bit longer than we thought today. Turns out that *the* Dr. Pepper had lived and died here, staying at the Historical Society Hostel has been a real treat.

Mostly though I'd like to direct your attention to a fellow blogger who we are currently travelling, Siemen has a bunch of awesome pics!

We joined up with the Crazy Belgian on Day 13.

Trip Update

The trip is now headed towards the town of Damascus, Virginia after a short stop in Radford with the cookie lady on the TransAmerica Trail.

Trip Update

The first days of travel reached towns such as Mechanicsville and Charlottesville Virginia. After four days of traveling the journey has reached the skyline drive in Virginia. Over 150 miles and many more to go!

Departure Day Photos

Departure Day

See you next in Virginia! We're off to see America. Here's one from Christina Rosseetti:

By the Sea

Why does the sea moan evermore?
Shut out from heaven it makes its moan,
It frets against the boundary shore;
All earth's full rivers cannot fill
The sea, that drinking thirsteth still.

Sheer miracles of loveliness
Lie hid in its unlooked-on bed:
Anemones, salt, passionless,
Blow flower-like; just enough alive
To blow and multiply and thrive.

Shells quaint with curve, or spot, or spike,
Encrusted live things argus-eyed,
All fair alike, yet all unlike,
Are born without a pang, and die
Without a pang, and so pass by.

As t approaches Zero

Nearing departure day and I'm looking for some musical inspiration. I do think I'll be able to update this blog more than one would think, most of the US should have wireless by now right? Ha.

Also, I look forward to finding out how to post pictures on here while on the road, most likely I'll find out how to do it on the final day. If you'd like a personalized postcard from the American country I'd love to send you one, just send me your address at wsankey@gmail.com

My brother just returned from a semester abroad in Brussels bearing a fancy cuckoo clock, I can hear its chime from upstairs. I think I'm going to miss that clock and the family dearly. I've had a real blast these past couple of weeks in Orange County, perhaps because of the realization that I'd be leaving soon and for an extended period. There's a saying that goes that the best time to leave a party is after making a really good joke. Sometimes you have to wonder if the jokes on you...

Good and boring

I guess I was warned about it, but I don't think I'll be carting around a box of these. On the other hand they did have one of these gels entitled "Espresso Love" which was o.k.

I don't think I'll ever understand the market for "plain." Makes me think of the Simpsons episode where Home scales the Murderhorn using Power Sauce.

Time to unleash the power of plain. I think I'll be mostly unleashing the power of regular food.

Required Reading

Thanks to Chris Wilson for this gem.

There isn't all that much beyond the necessities that we'll be carrying along the way. However, where we can spice up the load is in our reading choices. For the bookworms among us this is a pretty important decision, there are many books that we'd like to read or that have been recommended to us. Unfortunately, or fortunately, there's not too much space left in the pack for reading material -- but I think I've finalized the list...

L&C - thought this was rather appropriate, perhaps we'll even cross over their route.

Proust - Tedde Roosevelt read Anna Karenina on one of his outback treks, thought I'd pack a foreigner to provide a small refuge against the Americana.

Roosevelt - Naturally.


Math - Something to help me sleep at night.

And then Ryan and Joe may be bringing items themselves, I haven't spoken with Ryan about it yet but I am definitely excited to swap of the above for a bit of what Joe's carting

Daunting as this list is, it was worse until someone mentioned I should drop something. That something ended up being the Econometrics. Ugh, glad that isn't in there anymore.

What books would you bring along?

Maps

One From the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

And one courtesy of Joe Martin:



View Ocho Across America in a larger map

The Complex

I'd like to give a shout out to the Women's Studio Workshop where the following video (below) comes from, a lot of great people there doing some amazing things.

I link to this video because its awesome but also because I think I'd like to have the song stuck in my head for the entire ride across...

The Complex of All of These

The Things They Carried...

From Tim O'Briens book:

They carried USO stationery and pencils and pens. They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades, chewing tobacco, liberated joss sticks and statuettes of the sniffing Buddha, candles, grease pencils, The Stars and Stripes, fingernail clippers, Psy Ops leaflets, bush hats, bolos, and much more. Twice a week, when the resupply choppers came in, they carried hot chow in green Mermite cans and large canvas bags filled with iced beer and soda pop. They carried plastic water containers, each with a two gallon capacity. Mitchell Sanders carried a set of starched tiger fatigues for special occasions. Henry Dobbins carried Black Flag insecticide. Dave Jensen carried empty sandbags that could be filled at night for added protection. Lee Strunk carried tanning lotion. Some things they carried in common. Taking turns, they carried the big PRC-77 scrambler radio, which weighed thirty pounds with its battery. They shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear, Often, they carried each other, the wounded or weak. They carried infections. They carried chess sets, basketballs, Vietnamese English dictionaries, insignia of rank, Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts, plastic cards imprinted with the Code of Conduct. They carried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. They carried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds. They carried the land itself.

For our part we'll be carrying tents, sleeping bags, cooking supplies, clothes, sunblock, chain lube, spare tubes, paperbacks, bags, wallets, twenty-dollar bills, bananas, nutella, rain gear, stoves, cameras, and ourselves.