The adventure begins!

Oh, the amount of ways to describe the past month. There was a golden birthday in San Francisco as well as visits with the best of friends spread across Boise all the way to Coeur d’Alene with a Fourth of July pit stop in the Sawtooth Mountains. Not to mention the final weekend in the PNW at the Gorge with Arcade Fire and enough glitter to fill a suitcase (oh wait, we did that). And that was just in the West!

The belief is true people, traveling across the country in a four-axel is not the way to best enjoy your partner. It’s when to find the silliness that almost sounds made up. As for when two Canadians in Minnesota helped back up the truck and trailer into a car space most likely made for a Mini-Cooper. God Bless ALL the Canadians.

As we encroached upon Illinois through the Wisconsin border, which just so happened to be the first time Tracy crossed to the east side of the Mississippi, there was a discovery of the dreaded troll toll—insert joke from It’s always sunny in Philadelphia here. However, though there was fleeting moment that the passing of tolls was over once the border of Pennsylvania was reached, it is where all the trouble began. First of all, Pennsylvania might be hip in Philly, but the tollbooths are another type of Amish. The familiarity of paying at least 3x more for tolls was not a new thing, except, when the insufficient amount of cash and lack of credit card machine made it a real problem, to the point of the troll-toll requesting the two of us jump into the back of the 16 foot truck and scourge through belongings to find a checkbook. Oh wait, it’s 2014 and checkbooks are used as a form of lighting material for fires? Yeah, that’s what we thought too. There has never been a better bliss than leaving Pennsylvania for other states that also wanted to take our money.

After the 16-hour journey from Chicago, there came the Capitol. Unbeknownst to the common eye, people were not wearing obscure fashion outfits in strange colors and hair resembling the best of pop-stars i.e. k perry and gaga, and President Snow was nowhere to be found. However, it is a wonderful city that will be our home after Brazil in 2016.

The embarking of the journey commenced with four Kirins, one whiskey and two glasses of wine, and this is on the airplane people. It begins in Japan, where the ramen flows through the streets and sushi rules the nation. This might just be a dream, but I have no doubt unforeseen wonderfulness is on its way. For now, for you and for the monkeys, we all begin this great six months together.