Pre Trip: Episode One

The Circus

It just became Wednesday, the Late Night Television hours of the morning. The Pete Holmes Show is rolling on in the background. There are six windows open on my Firefox browser and they all contain some abandoned Google search rabbit hole: two bus schedules, Google Map of New York, Target website, this, and or course, Facebook. Six days until I start my trip and the neurosis is here. The plethora of open browsers is the beginning of it and nothing compared to the circus going on in my head. Any more "what if" thoughts and I'll need another suitcase - Which bus should I take to NYC? Gotobus, Greyhound, or Peterpan? Are Peterpan and Greyhound the same thing or in bed together? What's their deal? Gotobus drops me the the bottom of Manhattan, will I find my way to Penn Station? Peterpan and Greyhound drop me next to the train that I need, but what would I possibly do without the internet for five hours? Anyway, Gotobus advertises free internet and so, the decision has been made. Only problem is navigating my way around NYC, which I look forward to so I can hit up some weirdo shops and touristy stuff.

And... I've just lost half of the people reading this by starting in the middle of the story and not the beginning.

Okay, let's start over. Here's an even tackier reintroduction. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, South Carolina, Montreal, Toronto, and the Bahamas. Half of those places, I visited as a kid, so they only count as half credit. Now, I'm twenty-eight and opportunity for travel knocked in the form of my friend Peter telling my friend Ashley and me about how he was going on a week and a half road trip across the country. I was so excited to hear about this road trip that I actually put my beer down and listened as if a prophet was about to tell me the future. About two sentences into telling us about going to Colorado and Utah I blurted out, "THAT'S AWESOME!" And he said, "then you should come." Of course, I retreated from the offer and gave tons of excuses why I could not possibly enjoy myself for the next couple of weeks because that's how I am, but we ended the conversation with "I'll see if I can get the time off."

And then I did. Imagine that? Imagine that when you ask for something and then actually get it? Amazing, right? I am going on a road trip.

My friend Peter, who is the right leg of this traveling pants, is simply put a "why not?" kind of a guy. Peter and I met at the Improv Boston last Summer when we were both taking a sketch comedy class. After a failed attempt at building sketch comedy group when the class ended, we kept in touch and he contacted me about a bunch of sketches that he wrote and based on the Belle and Sebastian's album "If You're Feeling Sinister" - An album and band that I'd never heard of but as my type of people do we say "yes" and figure things out later. He got some people together, I got some people together, and it happened. Here is proof that happened. Exhibit A More proof needed? Exhibit B Now do you suspend your disbelief? Seriously? I try and tell you guys something and you can't just take my word for it and when I provide the best proof that there is you say, "Nope. I don't think so." There's no pleasing the masses unless you're a priest.

Back to 'ole Petey Pants over here, after we did those shows we stayed in touch and then he went on a trip to Australia where he beat up an entire Aussie gang with Paul Hogan. As a reward, he was presented with Melbourne's Key to the City, which he immediately swallowed and never digested. This story and more are available on his blog. Peter's Blog I stole his idea and created this blog for the sake of documenting my trip, and also for the sake of not having to yap about it after to people. Retelling stories every time a new person enters the conversation kills me.

More on the trip in the next one.