8.3 miles today.  Not bad!

View Larger Map

I’m currently traveling across the country for about 2 weeks.  You can follow along with my ’status’ updates on the right-hand column.  Here’s our planned trip route:

View Larger Map

We should arrive in Portland right at the beginning of Fall. See it through, today.

UPDATE: SEPT 12 – You can see photos, updated every few days, at Colleen’s flickr site.  I’m also doing some field recording, hopefully for an audio collage.  Combine that with facebook status updates via cell phone, and we make a badass media-making team!

Where we’ve stopped so far:

White Plains, NY – Punxatawney, PA – Pittsburgh, PA – Barkcamp State Park, OH – Columbus, OH – Cambridge City, IN – Indianapolis, IN – Lieber State Park, IN – Cloverdale, IN – Alton, MO – St. Louis, MO – Warrensburg, MO – Lawrence, KS – Lincoln, NE – Grand Island, NE – Kearney, NE – Gothenburg, NE – Sterling, CO – Denver, CO – Fort Collins, CO – Glendo State Park, WY – Custer, SD – Keystone, SD – Black Hills National Forest (Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Devil’s Tower) – Deadwood, SD – Gilette, WY – Billings, MT

In the days prior to leaving Philly, I noticed myself complaining a lot more about my home of the past 4 years.  I guess it’s easy to be discontent when you’re about to leave, it can be a coping mechanism.  Complaining does seem to be a hallmark of Philadelphians, so perhaps I’m finally getting in touch with my Philly state-of-mind.

I hope the Complaints Choir comes to Portland. Shelley Spector & First Person Arts are bringing it to Philly this year.  Here’s the Choir from Birmingham:

My submissions for Philadelphia:

• Why does the announcer, at the organized basketball games right next to my house, have to blare the sound system and blurt out his obnoxious, opinionated babble for the entire neighborhood to hear all summer long?
• Why is there no accountability for police officers in Philadelphia?
• Why is there no accountability for bad parenting in Philadelphia?  Our youth are practically guaranteed to fail when their guardians do not care for them.
• Why are traffic laws never enforced? I hate risking my life every time I walk, bike, or drive in this city!
• Why is SEPTA absolutely the dumbest, most unfriendly and inefficient transit agency in the United States?

Complaining about SEPTA is my favorite, sub-complaints of this are:

• Why is there no schedule information at bus stops?
• Why is there no schedule information on buses, or trains?
• Why do trolleys run on the same roads as cars?  It’s generally faster to drive or bike than to take a bus or trolley in Philly.
• Why do the under-serving subways stop running at midnight? PATCO runs 24 hours from Philly to New Jersey, why can’t SEPTA?
• For 90% of my trips in Philly, if I were to take transit, I’d have to transfer 2-3 times (and pay for each transfer) just to get somewhere 20 blocks away.  Why God, why?
• Why are practically all SEPTA staff disempowered from giving you change, a transfer, a token, some help, or even a smile?  There’s a gentleman standing in a booth in the subway and I can’t buy a token from him, yet there’s no token machine at the stop?   WHAT?!?!
• Why does SEPTA continue to charge exorbitant on-board service charges for buying a ticket on the train, WHEN MOST STATIONS DO NOT HAVE FUNCTIONING TICKET MACHINES.  WHAT THAT HELL IS THAT?!?!?!

That was cathartic!  Philly, I love you, but there are some things I just won’t miss.  Onward to Portland!