Day 3: Chi-town to Souix Falls, SD

Day 3 brought lots of hours in the car.  About 11 of them.  But, no worries, it was another pleasant drive overall.  The first highlight of day occurred as we were fighting Chicago rush hour out of the city.  I was driving and nonchalantly said, “Let’s listen to some Chicago tunes.”  I pushed the radio button to find some music, and an already tuned Chicago station started blaring none other than Chicago’s Saturday In The Park.  Of course, Kirk and I busted out into laughter (and song), and I think that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day.

Fast forward a couple hours to Wisconsin where I enjoyed my very first cheese curds.

Yummy and salty pretty much sums them up.  Next up we crossed the Mighty Mississippi River into Minnesota.

I would have loved to rent some kayaks and spent a day (or 7) paddling around the river, but instead we settled for bit of river access where we were able to stretch for a moment and put our toes in.

But, really I am getting ahead of myself.  Because, I think it was at the Wisconsin welcome center where Kirk was attacked and nearly killed by what we have heretofore referred to as the Oriole but is actually the Red Winged Blackbird.  After extensive research, while dealing with fleeting 3G, Kirk was able to identify his feathered foe.  You see, as we were attempting to document our 5th state line crossing, K apparently came dangerously close to a nest of these birds that have been following us around.  Of course, this caused the good Mama bird to dive bomb K’s head.  But, don’t worry, we still got the shot.

Okay, so back to Minnesota and the myriad of windmills.

Eventually we reached South Dakota, where we had decided to call it a night.

We met up with another one of my online friends, Kali- a Sioux Falls native- for dinner and drinks at a pretty sweet local spot.

And, that concluded Day 3 of the Greatest Roadtrip Ever (of 2012).  Ever.

xo,

E

Day 2: Chi-town

Day 2 started in Cleveland, Ohio.  Nothing too remarkable to report here.  I managed to find a couple more guitars this morning.

And, we did venture down to the water before leaving town, since we didn’t have time last night.  Having never been to any of the great lakes, I was super impressed.  It really felt like the ocean.  And, actually, as weird as this may sound, it felt a lot like Baltimore to me.  Or maybe the Maryland shore.  The harbor, the boats, the seagulls.  It all felt so familiar.

 We also saw the Cleveland Brown’s stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but only from the outside.  :(

By mid-morning, we were headed west on route 80, Chicago bound.  The pleasant 6 hour drive was punctuated by three Baltimore Orioles sightings (odd, did they follow us from Charm City?) and my first ever lunch at a Steak and Shake where I had a solid burger and a super tasty Orange Creamsicle Shake. 

At about 3 o’clock local time, we were pulling into a parking space in front of Parker’s Pets in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.  We decided to make time for a stop at Parker’s because Katie, the owner, and I have been online friends for several years now but have never met in person.

Parker’s Pets was totally awesome, and after lots of lovin’ from the resident Poms (ahem, Kirk!), we were on our way.

Once we checked into our hotel, we hailed a cab for Navy Pier.

 

The windy city was certainly living up to it's name, but the wind was actually a welcomed relief, because it was 95 degrees.  We poked around the Navy Pier, did a little people watching.

And then, by sheer luck, we discovered some free live music.  For free.  Craig Morgan, a country artist, happened to be putting on a free concert at the end of the pier.  So, we moseyed on down and took in the tunes.  Did I mention it was free?  Free country music makes Emilys happy.

After catching the sunset over the Chicago skyline...

 ...we decided on a water taxi ride back in the general direction of our hotel and where we wanted to have dinner.  The water taxi might have been one of the best decisions of the day.  The night was perfect for it- there was a nice warm breeze off the lake, and the quick trip up the river was breathtaking.

Upon a facebook recommendation, we popped into Portillo's for some local Chicago cuisine, and let me tell you:  Portillos sure did make our tails wag! 

And, truthfully, I debated an entire blog entry on just this experience, but I only wanted to fork over enough moolah for one hour of wifi.  So, here's the reader's digest version:  in short, K & I both agreed that the Portillo's meal has been the best of the trip so far.  We got one loaded hot dog:

And, one italian beef:

And we went halfsies.  Best.meal.ever. (of the roadtrip) ever.  Okay, and well, there may have been another hotdog, but I can't really remember.

And, so, that was Day 2 of the Best Roadtrip Ever (of 2012).  Ever.

G'night!

E

The great roadtrip of 2012: day one.

First of all, yes, I'm posting real-time about a road trip.  Secondly, don't even thing about trying anything fishy.  I have all of the necessary safety measures in place to ensure that my property and most prized possessions remain safe.  Ahem.  Now, the good stuff.

The Greatest Roadtrip of All Time, Ever, of 2012, Ever has begun.

Departure:  Columbia, MD

Eventual Destination:  Seattle, WA

Let the fun begin!  Day 1 took me from Columbia, MD to Philly, PA via Amtrak.  From there, my travel companion, K, picked me up and we headed west to the great state of Ohio.

Unfortunately, I had booked our hotel in the business district of Cleveland, so the city looked kinda like a movie set.  During break.  But, ah well.  We found exactly 2 restaurants that were open, and managed to consume a 1 1/2 star meal.  Hoozah!  Hoping for better food tomorrow.

There is an interesting charity event going on in Cleveland called Guitar Mania.  Apparently from now through the summer there are 10 foot Fender guitars displayed all around the city.  They are super cool and fun to fake-play. 

I only managed to snap one crappy cell phone photo and this other decent photo before the sunset.

Perhaps we'll hunt down more tomorrow before we dash off to Chi-town!

xo,

E

Taking the plunge

Tonight, we are taking a break from the regular schedule programming related to home improvements and DIY to talk dogs.  Why not?  I envisioned this blog to document my life, and dogs are a big part of it.

Last year, we took the plunge and got involved in the super fun sport of dock diving.  It didn't take long to realize that this is definitely a great sport for our family.  There is no gear involved, there are events held close to home, the entire family can go and be involved, there is little/no training necessary, and Piper loves it!  (Blake- not so much, but he provides great moral support.)

So, this past weekend, we were at an event in Frederick.  During one of Piper's jumps, Colin took some time lapse photos.  Does it look like this girl is enjoying herself or what?!

I was also able to snap a couple pics of Colin with his Piper.  I still remember the day he chose her when she was only 10 weeks old.

Hope your weekend was full of fun, sun and family time like ours was!

xo,

Emily

Bring on the rain

...'cause our rain barrel is up and ready!

We have had 4 of these 55 gallon plastic drums in the greenhouse since we moved into this house.  The previous owner had them filled with dyed water and used them to provide ambient heat for the houseplants and veggies they grew out there.  But, since I've never really used the greenhouse for growing plants- especially not in the winter when the drums of water would be most helpful- the 4 large drums just seemed kinda in the way.

So, several weeks ago, I freecycled 3 of them, and kept one with the idea that we might fabricate it into a rain barrel.  Well, this weekend Colin and I had time to tackle the project.  We headed to Home Depot with a general idea of what we needed, a large dose of cautious optimism (me), and loads of confidence that we could accomplish the job (him).

We picked up 4 items that we needed for this project:  a faucet, a hose bib, a spade bit for the drill, and some flexible downspout tubing.

There were a few other things we used that we already had:  a dremel with sanding bit and caulk.

The first thing we did was drill a hole for the faucet at the bottom of the barrel.  We put this hole very close to the bottom of the barrel, because our barrel will sit on a stand 12-18" off the ground.  But, if your barrel will sit on the ground, make sure to allow room to fill a watering can when you decide where to install your faucet.  Colin drilled a hole with the 7/8" spade bit and then used his dremel with sanding tool attachment to make the hole juuuust large enough for the 1" faucet to screw into.

Once he got that screwed in, I caulked the inside and outside.

Next, Colin drilled the same size hole for the overflow valve, which is near the top of the barrel and installed the simple hose bib there.

Then, we started the process of figuring out how to cut a hole in the lid so the rainwater could drain into the barrel from the downspout.  This took a bit of creativity, which happens to be Colin's specialty.  First, I used the downspout tubing to trace a circle onto the top of the lid.

Then, I attempted to cut out the circle using the jig saw (after Colin drilled several pilot holes with the spade bit again to get me started).  It was at this point that we discovered that the lid is actually several inches thick and hollow, so there were 2 layers of plastic to cut through, and the jig saw was having a fit if I tried to cut through both at the same time.  So, we tried plan B:  a dry wall saw.  Which didn't work.  Plan B was quickly followed by Plan C:  a tiny hand saw (also didn't work), and then Plan D: a box cutter (total fail).  We ended up settling on Plan E, which was that Colin drilled a series of holes using the spade bit again (spade bit for the win, anyone?) all the way around the hole I had traced.  He did this for the top layer of the lid and again for the bottom layer.  Then, I was able to even things out with the jig saw just fine.

The final step to the process was to retrofit the existing gutter system. 

 A few sections were removed, and we had redirected the downspout in no time. 

Lastly, we used this old scrap piece of garden hose we had lying around to route the overflow valve at the top of the barrel into the pipe that the downspout previously was routed to.

And, there you go:  a homemade rain barrel!  

Of course, we do still need to build the stand that the barrel will sit on, but I think dear old Dad will need to be in town for that.  And, if we get lots of rain between now and then, I'll just have to drain the barrel when the time comes.  All in all, I think it took us about an hour and a half to turn our barrel into a rain barrel, and that was with lots of trial and error!  I think we could do another one in half that time.  And, here's a cost breakdown:

barrel:  free
flexible gutter tubing:  $8.87
faucet:  $5.11
overflow valve:  $3.49
spade bit for drill:  $3.80
caulking:  free (already had)
total:  $21.27

I wanted to do this for under 20 bucks, so we did go over budget.  But, I am willing to overlook the cost of the spade bit and chalk that up to building up the 'ole tool box.  :)

Here are a couple shots I took from the backyard to show how the rain barrel looks up against the house and to show the placement (on the left corner of the house).

xo,

Emily

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