Pau Hana

Current Location: Wausau, Wisconsin

Well the final garage sale is done and we’re on the move again. The final take for garage sales was just over $1,200.00. When you pu that into perspective it’s hard to imagine selling all the items of a household for that amount, but at least the task is complete. As for the fate of the 400 some-odd posters they were donated to a local high school social-studies department who were very grateful. As for the rest of the stuff most of it was donated to grandmas old church and the salvation army.

We then spent the following three days cleaning the house from top to bottom while the nights for me were spent reading since the TV got sold on Sunday as well. Yesterday we cleaned until about 2 o’clock until Stanley Steemer arrived and cleaned the carpet for us. So as that dried we went and caught the new Indiana Jones movie and some dinner. Today we planned to be on the road by 11 o’clock but it turns out we had a lot more to do than planned so we got out of there at 1:30pm.

We’re on the road north through Wisconsin to Hurley which is where my fathers granparents raised their kids so we’re off to find the old farm and do some research on Finnish history. We’ll then head south through the Upper Penninsula (UP) of Michigan to Ann Arbor visiting family on the way.

Sorry about no new pictures, now that i’m on the road again I hope to be able to add to the gallery in the next few days.

Round Two

Well we are now officially 2/3’s done with garage sales, huzzah! Todays take was just north of $250 which puts the grand total at around $752.00, too bad thats also the price for a gallon of gasoline right now. Surprisingly enough having a garage sale on a Friday isn’t as bad an idea as I thought it might have been, the turnout was actually better than last week on a Saturday. My guess is there are less garage sales to compete with on a Friday. We actually had a time when the garage was completely full of people which was kinda nice to see so much of it going.

Sunday is our last garage sale when everything will be out there including all the furniture we are currently using including the bed i’m sleeping on (i’ll be moving to the basement couch which is staying with the house since dad doesn’t want to move that beast out of the basement.) Then it’s on to cleaning the house which is scheduled to be completed by Thursday at the latest.

Not much else going on around here, i’m looking forward to Macinac island which we will hopefully get to visit. We are also going to the northern part of Wisconsin to see where my dads grandparents grew up.

Everything Must Go

Hooray, We just finished our first garage sale today. Our grand total was $502.00, though that number is a little artificially inflated due to selling of a sterling silver silverware set to a gentleman for $250.00.

I must say that the turnout was pretty good even if the newspaper got the address wrong in the paper. We sold a little bit of everything from the folding bed in the attic to a few of the hundreds of posters my dad had collected through the years. Speaking of the posters one gentleman actually spent a full hour flipping through each and every poster just to find the ones he wanted; at a nickel a piece you can’t go wrong for a poster.

We have two more sales to go then whats left is given to the Salvation Army. I’ve posted a few pictures from todays sale. The Waukegan leg of this trip will be over in about a week and a half, then it’s on to mysterious Michigan.

So Much Stuff

I’ve posted a few pictures that i’ve taken while trying to sort through all of grandmas stuff. So far the coolest things we’ve found have been a mink coat/cape thingie thats still in perfect condition (dad says it belonged to his grandmother.) We found a folding camera which took me a while to figure out how to change the film. We found news papers from 1908; let me put that into perspective, thats the end of World War 1… let that sink in for a second. World. War. 1. Jeeze thats old. We found a bunch of stuff my dad sent back from africa like a crossbow, a drum made of zebra hide, some other drums, a sword from Indonesia I think.

We cleaned out the attic today where dad was storing what mom and I estimate to be 1000 posters, sooo if anyone has a desire of a poster let me know. We are also sorting through boxes and boxes and boxes of pictures. I think grandma tucked pictures away into every nook and cranny possible in this house, it seems that every cupboard that we open we find more pictures to sort through.

I’ve updated some pictures in the Road Trip gallery, i’ve also sorted it so the newest pictures are at the beginning instead of the end wihch makes a ton more sense.

Home? at Last

Distance Travelled: 2844.7

Current Location: Waukegan, Illinoise

I have reached the final destination of this road trip but I can hardly call this place home, I’m not sure if i’ll be afforded that luxury for the forseeable future. Someone was talking about how much fun it is to go on vacation and that coming ’home’ is that much more gratifying. I’m sure coming home after a 2 year vacation will be infinately enjoyable.

It was kinda sad leaving Minnesota thanks to the family thats there. What a great bunch of people up there that treat us great. If it weren’t for the sub 0 temperatures that plague that area I might think of moving there but I think a Maui boy like me would be a popsicle at the first snow.

Thanks goes to Jess, Lou, Uncle Donney and Aunt Betty, Rob, Patty, MaryBeth, Ruthie, Jim, Theresa and everyone else up there. I’ve gotten a few invitations to head back up that way which I intend on taking up so I can learn to sail and jet ski, and do more visiting. These are things i’ve heard about since the beginning of time so I can’t wait.

We started work on Grandmas house today, we cleaned out the garage and got that in a decent enough condition. This is the staging area for our upcoming garage sales; looking through the house we have a ton of work ahead of us. If anyone needs anything in the greater Chicago area let me know, we got a house full of stuff that needs a home.

A Foreign Man in a Cold Land

Finally got my computer working again, it turned out my 6 year old harddrive on my laptop bit the dust.I really must find a way of backing up all my pictures, fortunately it’s been a while since i’ve deleted all the images off of my compact flash card.

Everything is going fairly well, been spending a lot of time with family up here. It’s great to get anopprotunity to spend time with family like this.

I’ve added pictures in the album. Mt. Rushmore is now there along with pictures of my uncles cabin onMille Lacs Lake and a visit with our old family doctor who now lives here in Minnesota.

We plan to be leaving for Waukegan on Friday morning so I expect we’ll be hard at work on Saturday morning.

The End of the Road… Almost

Distance Travelled: 2444.3

Current Location: St. Paul, Minnesota

Huzzah, I made it here a little before I planned to but I made it in once piece. Which is more than I can say about my laptop which has decided to kick the bucket. I’ll try to get that in working order sometime this weekend so until then updates will be a little infrequent.

A Whole Lot of Plain

Distance Travelled: 2172.1 miles

Current Location: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

I must confess I never calculated out how many miles I would have to drive to get to my destination. Granted, I haven’t taken the most direct route possible it still boggles the mind that I could have driven around Oahu 8 times by now, assuming wikipedia is correct (I tend to hold wiki close to my heart as it is a spring of information in which almost any information can be found.)

Todays drive was about as exciting as Wyoming but it was punctuated with the Black Hills which made for a decently scenic drive for about half the day.

As Superman commented in my previous post about why the Black Hills are named as such (because of the trees on the hills which from a distance give the hills a decidedly dark appearance.) It was quite obvious driving through them why they were named like that, so that mystery has been solved. Thanks Superman, for never letting me down.

Also of note was Mount Rushmore, which was well worth the stop. I first saw George Washington peek his head around the corner, then dissapear again as I kept driving. It was enough to confirm that it was worth the drive. I took a bunch of pictures but they are all from basically the same perspective, so i’m not sure how exciting they will be. I haven’t had a chance to review the pictures yet but once I do i’ll post a few.

I was dissapointed a little with the lack of hiking around Mt. Rushmore. I was hoping for a 4hr trail which I could knock out and then drive a little. It was limited to a .5 mile walk around with an audio tour you could rent (I passed.) I did poke around the museum a bunch to figure out why and how it was done, a pretty interesting process used to complete this monument.

I stopped at a few random places on the way, Wall Drug was one which had what I estimate to be close to 100 billboards advertising everything from root beer, to 5cent coffee , to a tyranasouraus rex. It was fairly kitschy, even rexy was a dissapointment as a sign next to him announced that he roared every 15 minutes, I didn’t bother waiting.

Tommorows plan is to make it to St. Paul Minnesota where i’ll wait for ma and pa. They are currently on the Canadian train en route to Winnipeg, Manitoba where they will catch a bus down to St. Paul on Saturday which is when I meet them. Should be an easy enough drive.

On the Road Again

Distance Travelled: 1750.1 miles

Current Location: Sturgis, South Dakota

Once again this was written last night but lacking internet is being posted today.

Left late again out of Ft. Collins after having lunch with Shaun. Thanks goes out to Shaun and Catherine for letting me crash their place for the weekend. I should probably explain a couple of the pictures in the gallery.

Shaun wanted to go camping and I was a willing victim. Also on the roster to go camping was Tom and Serena (friends of Shauns.) The only problem was the weather forcasters were saying that there was to be snow on Saturday (we were going camping on Friday) So on friday Tom and Serena chicken out and decide they don’t want to fool with the cold leaving just Shaun and I. We figure to try our luck and go camping anyway. Another semi-problem is we’re going camping in a Lexus, which if you weren’t aware does not have 4-wheel drive. We throw caution to the wind and head up to the Poudre camping area anyway.

Everything goes pretty smoothly in terms of setting everything up, we got the tent and a fire going before the sun set which was a concern as we were losing daylight. All goes well as we cook up a few steaks thrown down a few beers and yack away the evening.

Fast forward to 2am when I wake up to use the bathroom to find the ground covered in snow and my legs are freezing (that would be the last I slept that night.) Shaun wakes up soon after to use the bathroom as well and promptly goes back to sleep.

To wrap up the story Shaun later tells me that he was worried at 2am when he woke up that we might have to hike down the mountain to get help to get out as there would be no way his Lexus could make it out if the road was at all icy. Fortunately for us it looked worse than it really was early on. We made it out of there around 9am and putzed around the house as we were both fairly tired.

Anyway, on to the days drive. Wyoming… I think I now really understand what rolling hills are. Other than that it was fairly boring. I did enjoy driving on Route 85 because 90% of the time I was the only car that I saw on the road. Seeing snow on the ground also reconfirmed my decision not to go to Yellowstone right now because i’d probably freeze to death.

Driving into South Dakota was a nice change of pace in terms of scenery, getting a taste of the Black Hills though I have yet to figure out why they are named such. I’m staying with my dads cousin tonight (which i’ve been told makes her my cousin once removed (whatever that means.)) in Sturgis; home to the motor- cycle rally held each year. So far this place seems fairly tame, just a lot of Saloons in town. I’m guessing this place livens up in July when the rally is.

The plan for tommorow is to see Mt. Rushmore and drive for 4 hours as i’m hoping they have a bit of hiking I can do there so we’ll see where I end up.

Quick Hits

I’ve updated some pictures in the gallery

The plan for tommorow is to make it to Sturgis, South Dakota. My estimate is that it’s a 6 hour drive. I’ve decided to write off Yellowstone due to the weather forcast. I don’t have cold weather gear and after this weekends camping experience I think it prudent to put it off.