Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The first days in Tsikago


Alright, finally the thing we've all been waiting for. The first real post from the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The great journey started already on 22.5 Friday. The Dukes of Funland started their engines and headed to Vantaa for a good night sleep (4h) and a great meal (baguette)




DAY 23RD (Still in fuNland):

The Dukes pack their shit and get their asses to the airport. All goes well so far or so the Dukes thought. Juval loses his papers just right after he passes the security check point. Way to go!! 165km away from home and already the fun starts! :) But no worries, he finds it soon after convincing the Duke of Mateness aka Sakari that it's not lost but just misplaced.



But he finds it. Oh joy!















The next screw-up the Dukes manage to cook up is after they get to Heathrow airport so that would be 3 hours later. Sakari passes the UK border line. Damn, it's the wrong way! Not there! The officer at the desk points out that the right way is a bit further. The sign "No Entry" with big red letters is apparently the right way. Sakari needs to find his way back through the security check to the international area. Well he's a smart boy as we all know, so he does and also he manages to dazzle the security guards to letting him bring 1L of liquid through the check point. As it happens that liquid is Salmiakki Koskenkorva that we bought from duty free :) Now the dukes can't leave that behind now could they.




So then great flight over the big puddle. They meet with a Moldovan guy. Jada jada. Sleep, movie, a guy on crack, book, sleep. bla bla, book and finally after 8 hours of horrendous pain. TSIKAKA! The dukes make their way to the chicago's public transportation trains after picking up their bags. And then they fuc*up again. They manage to go backwards with the train. There's a construction going on on the tracks. So the train starts moving back to O'Hare airport. "Oh" they both mumble while looking deeply into the others eyes. That's why everyone else left the train. (note: sentence a bit faggish)

Finally HI Chicago hostel once they find it fairly easily with the excellent orienteering skills of Duke Sakke. They get phones set up right away and here are their phone numbers: Sakari +17738084454 and Juval+17735436407.


Because of the tiring dipr, the boys are a bit like brain dead zombie like creatures. They start walking around the city streets for some small sight seeing. This is what they found in Millennium park.


















After a good beer at the park the dukes retire to their hostel!





DAY 24TH:

After waking up the boys start heading to their couch surfing buddy Parker's place. There's a birthday going to happen tonight and luckily the Dukes were invited. Or not so luckily to the other guys. Anywhoo, some sushi is involved and some beer and wine. Then the dukes already get their first cultural experience at the T.M.L.M.T.B.G.B (Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind) theater.


The dukes agreed it was some great stuff, 30 plays in 60 minutes. At the theater Juval gets sprayed with serpentine in the face and Sakari jumps on the stage to snatch a dollar. Go figure who got the better deal. Then after the improv they head to a friends place to spend the night drinking astronaut shots and listening to the the ukulele (thanks Tim and Haley) After some heavy drinking people got tired and it was time to go home. But nah... things couldn't end easily now could they.

Justin's car.















The Dukes had jinxed the party by being there!! Sorry Justin. The Finns are really sorry about this. "Our bad"? Justin's car broke down in the middle of the street. But anyway... happy birthday? We love you! And Tim thanks for throwing us back home.

DAY 25TH:

Time for some true Chicagoan pizza! The true delight of the windy city. What a delicacy :) The dukes find them selves in a pizza place in Belmont. Oh yeah, 2 slices each and they're done. The 2 cm thick cheese layer kills hunger easily or kills you. Either way, nobody needs more than 2 slices.



In this picture: Ana and Haley











Next everyone heads to Joanna's place. Time to get some wine and get this party started! Joanna has some funny beards from her beard party before. So what the hell, let's use them again.


In this picture: Ana&Joanna&Sakari&Juval

After again some wine and other drinks. The people need to get home. Justin as being such a nice chuckle fuc*er throws the Finns back home. But funnily enough he get's pulled over. The Dukes make their first encounter with the police. Oh yeah! The Dukes jinxed the party again! But nothing bad happens due to excelent handling of the situation. We drive off safely without any tickets.

Well that concludes the story so far. Stay tuned for some more later on! Thanks Ana, Casey, Erica aka Fuc*ing A!, Haley aka ukulele, Jason, Joanna, Justin aka "my bad", Lisa, Parker and Tim, so far it's been real! Thanks!

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Timetable

Some people have been inordinately interested about possible collisions during our trip. To facilitate the exchange of information, we have made a timetable, that may or may not reflect the reality.

Sat 23.5.Chicago 
Wed 27.5.Detroit [459 km 4h30min]
Wed 27.5.Toronto [394 km 4h5min]
Sat 30.5.Buffalo [160 km 1h45min]
Tue 2.6.Montréal [639 km 6h33min]
Thu 4.6.NYC [602 km 6h17min]
Tue 9.6.Philadelphia [164 km 1h51min]
Tue 9.6.Washington [222 km 2h37min]
Wed 10.6.Charleston [853 km 8h10min]
Thu 11.6.Orlando [609 km 6h14min]
Fri 12.6.Miami [381 km 3h41min]
Tue 16.6.Key West [257 km 3h32min]
Wed 24.6.New Orleans [1643 km 16h9min]
Sun 28.6.Austin [856 km 8h 32min]
Tue 1.7.Mexico border [1342 km 12h55min]
Wed 2.7.Guaymas [~500 km 5h 10min]
Sun 5.7.Tucson [~600 km 6h 10min]
Tue 7.7.Las Vegas [673 km 7h26min]
Tue 14.7.Los Angeles [448 km 4h15min]
Tue 21.7.San Francisco [614 km 5h49min]
Mon 27.7.Flight back

Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Plan

Departure: 23rd of May from Helsinki, Finland to Chicago, USA
Arrival: (hopefully) 27th of July back to Helsinki from San Francisco, USA

Crew: Juval, the other Duke of Finland and all-around goodfella (you know, like Robert De Niro), or was it weirdfella.. Anyhoo, and Sakke, the guy who plays the barrel organ in the background wearing a red sombrero.

Transportation: Car, the dream is to have a vehicle with 4 wheels. To be determined.

Route: ~11000 km



View USA2009 in a larger map.  There is a missing spot, we will probably be visiting Guaymas in Mexico, south from Tucson.

Next post when we are upon the soil of USA, searching for a suitable car for the hardships ahead, contemplating our journey in a bold quest to better ourselves. Or earlier, hard to say.