my North American adventure
 

Hey everyone!! :D

It's Jen here :) As I type this, I am coming to the end of the 3rd day of my 30 days cross-NA adventure (by rail) here at Fisherman's Wharf in sunny San Francisco. I am here until tomorrow morning when I will be hopping aboard the Amtrak Coast Starlight down the coast to Los Angeles & then onto Vegas first thing the next morning. Beyond that, my itinerary for the next 26 days (ending May 31st) is totally up in the air!! ...

My plans are to make my way eastward, stopping in Chicago, Ann Arbor, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Rochester, Boston, DC, NYC, Atlanta, New Orleans, San Antonio, Austin, Grand Canyon, Miami, Philly ... and points in between & not in this order!! Dates and times still TBD. :confused:

This is my first time ever backpacking - it's my present to myself for finally (FINALLY!) meeting my graduation requirements for my bachelors degree after a long, long haul at college & university (many of you know what I am talking about!) :) Anyway, I am wondering, actually hoping, that you, my wonderful AGD sisters, will have some travel advice for me ... where should I be sure to try to visit? how should I best document this journey of mine? is anyone up to meeting up at some point? I am SOO looking forward to finally meeting Leslie & Tonya (I AM indeed coming thru Rochester!) :D

Please excuse my rambling, I just wanted to share my excitement with you all & ask for your help & input.

Thanks for reading & I'll look forward to reading your replies :)

LiEP,
Jen :cool:

I wish you were staying in Los Angeles a little longer! I guess I'll have to settle for seeing you when you swing back through town in a few weeks! :)

Have fun and be safe!

Sounds totally cool! Too bad I won't see you at the Falls in June! :(

Hey! When you get to Atlanta let me know!!! There is all kinds of stuff to do!!

I would love to meet you when you come through! As for recording your journal, well you can do that here!!;) :D

Email me when you are coming through!

Hey! What a wonderful idea!! I will tell you what, if you come through KY let me know I would definitely be up for lunch or whatever!!
I don't know what you really are looking to do for fun, but PM me or email me and I can tell you some cool things for about a three state area. I can also say you have to go to Florida and see the gulf side of the beaches. I think it is much more beautiful than the ocean side, and cleaner too!!
Love and loyalty, Sarah

Jen,

I am so totally jealous of your trip! You are going to have the time of your life! To record your trip, just get a vacation/travel journal. You can get them at any bookstore or even some photo shops. Pick the one you like the best & record all your travel experiences in it as you go.

If you stop through Alabama, let me know! I'm in Birmingham & would love to meet up! PM me & I'll give you my cell number & show you around town, there is tons to do here!

Jen

las vegas is hot!
 

you ladies are awesome :) I am now here in HOT las vegas, having arrived at the bus station (bleck!) at 2:30 am & finally hailing a cab at 4:15 to get me to my hostel ... most every cab was afraid to stop for fear of being shot or stabbed (at least according to the cab driver that finally picked me up after I walked to a hotel/casino just past the freemont experience for those of you who know vegas (its that dome thing near the old casinos that has those cool plane shows overhead every hour - sorry, its hard to explain, I'll try to explain it better when I actually see it working (it was too late last night) ... anyway, right away I met up with some very cool people from around the world (Germany, England, New Zealand, Sweden, etc), who promptly offered me some drinks & some eats. All in all, its great here thus far - I finally dragged my butt out of bed about an hour ago at about 12:30 after crashing just before 7 am!!

thus far the trip is going well, though the bus connections like last night's can be LONG, though a certain very cute marine made it passable :) ... he's from Cali so I'll probably meet up with him before I head home!! ;) anyways ...

I am off to spend some cash at the casino (just a little hopefully) & am then off to ride the roller coaster at the top of either the stratosphere or another one of the super tall hotels ... it should be fun!

if the rest of my trip is anything like the past few days, I cannot wait! :D

I'm here in vegas until tomorrow & then off to the grand canyon, as soon as I know more of my itinerary I'll let you all know ... and hopefully I can indeed meet up with many of you on my travels in the next few weeks :)

I'll keep ya posted!
LiEP, Jen

dry to wet in just under 4 days flat!
 

hi everyone :) sorry that I haven't posted in a few days - it's hard to from the train ... anyway, here is my latest update from my travels ...

Fast forward from the hot, dry climate of Las Vegas to the grey, rainy sky of upstate New York - Rochester to be exact! I arrived here this morning for a few brief hours before I make my way up to Toronto & Montreal ... sadly, it does not look as though Tonya & I will be able to meet up this time 'round :(

Since my last post, I lost some $$ in Vegas :rolleyes: , met two very cute boys - one is a teacher from Long Island/Baltimore (that I spoke with for at least 9 straight hours from almost as soon as I boarded the train from Chicago-Rochester last night until about 5:30 this morning!) and the other was a guy from NZ staying at the same hostel in Las Vegas (whom I hung out with for 3 solid days) ... both were such amazing guys - the kicker? of course, both have long term girlfriends AGGGHH!!! that seems to be my fate - to meet men who are always taken (not that there wasn't a definite vibe between us! ;) ... whatever. Hmm, besides these men, I have spent the better part of the past three days on buses & trains: from Las Vegas to Chicago via L.A. (yeah THAT made sense! Amtrak sucks!), and then directly onto a train in Chicago to Rochester ... all the while riding in coach - let's just say that that makes for some interesting people watching, especially at the bus/train stations at random hours of the night! Lets me see ... besides bussing & training & meeting boys, I did manage to find a cheap rental car with some people from the hostel, including the cute New Zealander (read: a real hoopty ghetto cruiser, complete with worn out shocks & an inability to exceed 60!) and make it to the west rim of the Grand Canyon (not quite in the grand canyon national park) & over the Hoover Dam 3 times, plus some cruising up & down the strip & to almost every fast food place in Vegas in search of something that DIDN'T taste like paper (that part of the mission was a failure!). White rental cars = filthy rental cars.

All in all, over the past several days, I have met some truly incredible individuals with whom I hope to remain friends with, and I have also realized a few things:

1) Amtrak sucks!!
2) Vegas climate is dry
3) Burger King Chicken Whopper = BLECK!! gross & slimy!
4) Having a laptop or palm pilot with me would have made
journaling much easier to do while on the train
5) Long Island has one of the two fire ecosystems in the US
6) the sleeper cars (the basic) looks like closets
7) Never wash your hair with hemp shampoo UNLESS you want
to achieve the greasy, oil slick look
8) I packed WAY too much stuff!
9) It's hard to diet on this trip - everything is carbs & fatty it
seems!
10) threatening to murder someone in San Fran is a felony
(there's quite a story here!)
11) I like taking showers & miss them terribly when I can't have 1!
12) guys I seem to meet either are already involved, have kidS,
or are, well, umm, not for me!
13) did I mention that Amtrak sucks!
14) Oprah Winfrey tickets are hard to come by!
15) I wish that I had more time to travel & see more of Canada's east coast
16) I really need to keep a journal from this point onward
17) Amtrak really & truly SUCKS!

okay, okay, I know that this has been a rather long post ... a BIG thank you to those of you who have made it thusfar ;) while I have had some setbacks & have had to change many of my plans, I am truly enjoying myself & wishing that I had more time to visit more places - l KNOW that I want to do something again like this in the near future (probably next spring!). Along the way, I have also had some interesting experiences & encounters that I will probably post at another time.

well, that's about all from me for now ... I am off to call Tonya & to explore a little bit of Rochester before I hop back on my next train in just over 3 hours :)

signing off from Rochester, NY ... liEP,
- Jen :D

Re: dry to wet in just under 4 days flat!
 

Jen, didn't you just buy that laptop on Ebay?!? Why didn't you take it with you?

no laptop yet
 

I ended up voiding the sale because I discovered that the warranty would be invalid - I called HP just to make sure & am now SOOO glad I did ... only thing is that I have to look for a laptop once I get back to Vancouver - until then, it's spending lotsa money at Kinko's for access ... c'est la vie.

Just for the record, I am now in Toronto at my friends' apartment, and they are trying to convince me to stay here for a few days ... only thing is that I am scheduled to train to Montreal tomorrow morning. I'll see what happens I guess ...

that's about it from me for now.
liEP,
Jen


PS - I think that this is the absolute most excited I have ever been to take a shower :D... I've been on the train/bus since Thursday morning (though I did have a quick one I paid for in a sleeping car a couple of days ago ... just thought I'd share. :)

Jen, good call on the laptop! While I totally love HP and would recommend it, if you need something a little less expensive, you might want to check out www.dell.com ...they have very good computers and I think some of their laptops are on sale now for like $899 (American) which is definitely less than HP's $1200. Of course, you'd have to see what stuff was included.

LOL, I love Amtrak. Its the only way I travel (cuz I refuse to fly and that was even before 9/11)

Jen, I am so sad that I didnt get to see you. I got your message after I got off of work at 3om, so you had left by then. I hope you found something better then Dunkin Dounuts on Monroe Ave. I hope you found all the good restaurants that are on Monroe. Funny thing is I work on Monroe Ave too, but way up. You were probably about 9 blocks from where I work. If you didnt notice there is nothing but bars on that street. My apologies for the way Rochester looks when it rains. It really is a nice looking town. I hope you had fun and sorry I missed ya. I will try calling you later to see how your trip is going!

LiEP,
Tonya

still here
 

nothing super exciting to report ... I am still here in Toronto at my friend's apt & will be until tomorrow (they wanted me to stay one more night), when I will depart for Montreal (possibly via Canada's capital - Ottawa) and then will travel on the Adirondack (supposed to be one of the world's 10 most beautiful/scenic train rides) from Montreal to New York City on Thursday. From there ???????? from Friday to Monday, when I will make my way up towards Michigan & my meeting with Leslie on Tuesday (yay!!! I am SOO excited about that!!!).

fun stuff all-in-all ... I'll be sure to report back soon with details of my travels from Toronto to Montreal & then to NYC.

until then - sayonara from me in Toronto!
liEP, Jen :)

no worries!
 

Tonya,

I too am sorry that we missed each other yesterday, but don't worry - I am sure that we will figure something out :)

and yes, I did manage to find something else besides Dunkin' Donuts, though it took me awhile! I ended up eating at this cute diner-type place filled with many college-types ... it was called Mark's Hot something or rather - do you know the place? it was quite yummy actually!

well, I'm off to the mall & then out for sushi here in the big Toronto - quite tame, but it's so good to see these friends - I haven't seen them in over a year & have really missed them! :)

- Jen

Jen,

It sounds like you are having an amazing time! How was Vegas? I'm going there in a couple of weeks & am so excited. What would you recommend packing/going to see?

Speaking of laptops, I work in an IT dept. Don't buy a HP! Go for Dell, Sony, IBM, or Compaq.

Also, if you happen to come through Birmingham, AL I will personally treat you to sushi!

Hope you are having the time of your life, it sure sounds like you are. Keep us posted on the developments. BTW, the San Fran story about threatening to kill someone sounds interesting...when you get back from your trip & have time fill us all in!

LIEP
Jen

What's wrong with HP? I have bought one after my Compaq broke down for the second time, and I love it!

I am so jealous!
 

Jen,
I am reading about your trip and I am so jealous!!! I hope you are having a great time. :)

Jen, you are still planning on swinging back to L.A, right? Hope I get to see you then!

Jen...if you see this, remember to e-mail me about when you're coming. I still don't know what day or time!

Sorry Leslie, didn't mean to knock your HP! I've worked in a computer dept for the past 3 & 1/2 years & the guys here all hate HP's. I suppose their opinion has just rubbed off on me. I do have an HP desktop at home but I have had tons of problems with it.

I recently got a Sony laptop & it is awesome!! I would highly recommend Sony to anyone considering buying a laptop.

Jen

remember me?!
 

I am so sorry that I have been so bad about posting about my journey :(

Right now I am writing this post at a Drexel University library here in Philly before I head back to the train station to head to Birmingham, AL, where I'll then be headed by car to Huntsville for just under a day. On Monday I will be heading back to Vancouver by car, plane, & bus via Birmingham, Chicago & Seattle. I will arrive back in Vancouver literally just in time to convocate!! YAY!

as you can probably tell, my trip did not go quite as I had originally planned ... life happens. I have enjoyed myself for the most part & will look forward to sharing some of my travel stories with you once I get home & have the chance to type them out!

In the meantime, I just wanted to say hi to everyone, apologize to those of you who I had intended to meet up with but couldn't (especially Tonya & Maria), and let you all know what an amazing sister Leslie is :) We met up & hung out for the day this past Tuesday & she was a phenomenal hostess :) Leslie - you rock! I cannot wait to see you again, whenever that may be!!

that's it from me for now!
liEP, Jen

Re: remember me?!
 

Ahh, why thank you! :D It was fun to have ya! Glad your travels are going well...I was a little worried when you didn't e-mail me.
Next time we'll spend less time "exploring" Ann Arbor and more time shopping...no TGIFridays next time! ;)

Great to be an Alpha Gam!
 

It is SOOO cool that sisters are always willing to hook up with other sisters they have never meet when traveling. I'm looking forward to doing the same when I visit Hawaii! I LOVE AGD & MY AWESOME SISTERS!!!!!! Our eternal bonds rock! :-)
~Lori
P.S. if any one comes to GA, let me know and we'll go to six flags and Atlanta! ;)

Re: Great to be an Alpha Gam!
 

...And we can't wait to meet you, Lori!

Welcome to GC, Lori! :) Make sure you sign in on our AGD Roll Call thread!

Jen...I am so sorry that I havent gotten the chance to call you yet. I have been really busy with work (which is where I log on to this from now mostly) and I have also been sick. I will give you a try sometime, still have your number I promise :) I am glad your trip went as well as it could go and hope to hear lots about it!

Leslie-- you better be in A2 if I come down there for Art Fair, whenever that is :D

Tonya

PS-- Welcome to GC Lori!

Re: Great to be an Alpha Gam!
 

Hey Lori!

I live in Gainesville just above atlanta. I LOVE six flags so whenever you want to get together and go just let me know!!:D

PS. Welcome to GC!

Just tell me when and I'll be there! ;)