A Cape Cod Christmas!

With the Christmas season finally here we decided that we needed to get into the Christmas Spirit! Now this isn't exactly the easiest task when your home is a van! However we did manage to get some awesome Christmas decorations at a local dollar store in an attempt to make our van "pimped out" for Christmas! A snow globe mounted to the dash, some red and green garland, Christmas magnets, a Christmas star on the antenna, Christmas bulbs hanging from the review mirror, and finally some battery operated lights did the trick! We are now happily cruising along to the tunes of the holiday season, and hopefully spreading the holiday cheer to our fellow travelers. Once again Priceline pulled through for us and we stayed the weekend at a great hotel in Dartmouth MA, and even better Dottie and Sandi met back up with us for our four day weekend! We had been wanting to go to Cape Cod since making it out here, but had yet had the opportunity. So lucky for us it was finally within driving distance, even if it was a bit out of season! So we all piled into the van, and headed towards "the cape!" We didn't really have a destination in mind per say. We just figured we'd go with the flow and see where that would land us. Earlier in the week I had seen an add for a Christmas Festival in Hyannis, which is at the beginning of the cape. So we made our way in that direction. Taking a slight detour to Sandwich, MA, at the request of our friend Jed, who used to live there! We found all of the towns we passed through on "the cape" to be great little summer escapes, and we could definately relate to the tourist vibe we felt all along the coast. Finally we found Hyannis, and made our way to the harbor in order to see the boat parade of lights! It must have been quite the sight for the locals to see us all pile out of the van bundled up in as many layers as we could find. I imagine that some of us might have looked like the little brother Randy from the movie "The Christmas Story." We stopped to take a look at the JFK museum with all it's Christmas decorations before we made our way to the harbor for our Festival of Lights boat departed. We even watched a rendition of It's a Wonderful Life by the local high school! With our Christmas spirits now soaring we decided to make the most of next day by taking a more patriotic approach. We all once again piled into layers of clothing and our vans for our adventure to Plymouth Rock! The "rock" wasn't as glorious as one would think, but the history and it's upcoming anniversary made the adventure definitely worthwhile! We spent the day posing for pictures like crazy tourists, and even singing our hearts out to the tune of "Proud To Be An American!" ...and I won't forget the Pilgrams who landed at this rock for me...ha ha...Our next stop would be our Extended Stay hotel since these studio type apartments have kitchenettes we decided to cook our dinner, and watch "Pirates of the Carribean" on the big CAMFEL screens! It was sad to depart the next day knowing that we more than likely wouldn't be seeing our new friends for quite some time, since we will be going our separate ways for the holidays and after! It was fun to have one last opportunity to take new adventures, and make new memories!

long awaited NYC Pics!

Erin and Melissa take on the East Coast accent!

After our much needed Thanksgiving break we were off to Rome! Unfortunately this Rome wasn't in Italy, but rather in upstate NY! The next couple of weeks would prove to be interesting with our travel schedule taking us from NY to MA and back again. During this time we found it oddly comforting to be going back to places that seemed familiar to us. We spent several nights in hotels that we had stayed in before, and we got a kick out of the hotel clerks recognizing us from previous stays. It's weird to think that we've become so aquainted with some of these towns that we can give out directions and recommend places to eat and things to do as if we've lived there!
While on our tour of Rome:) We saw many students connect with our video. One school in particular stands out to us...after the show we had a discussion time with the student body about things that stood out to them in the video. The students were giving great responses. The final student to speak stood up and encouraged his peers to begin to take the time reach out to each others, in the hallways, in the classrooms, in the cafeteria, during sporting events, and everywhere that they could. He encouraged his classmates to simply get rid of the negativity and to look beyond their social status and popularity in order to see people for who they really are. This earned him a huge applause from the school, and a beaming smile from the principal! We were encouraged to see a school unified and ready to make a difference in each others lives as well as in their community. We were proud to play a small part in that.
We were also able to meet up with two of our fellow techs Dottie and Sandi. We briefly had lunch and chatted for hours on Sunday afternoon before we headed off for our next set of shows. Again our travel schedule was taking us all over the Eastern Seaboard traveling back and forth from RI to CT to MA back to CT back to MA, and finally back to RI. Again we found ourselves staying in the same hotels and more importantly thankful to be near a CHIPOTLE! We took advantage of this crazy schedule by stopping at Mystic Pizza in Mystic CT. Some of you may recall that this was the inspiration for a 1980's Classic Movie starring a young Julia Roberts! The Pizza was a "slice of heaven!" We both began realize that not only were we becoming aquainted with some of these east coast towns, but with the geography of the states as well. When you begin to drive back and forth as many times as we have you really begin to appreciate/recognize the scenery and it's beauty, especially along the coast lines. We may have felt like we were beginning to fit in, but our accent would say otherwise, and in one particular case it was a dead give away! One morning we were at a school bright and early, and glad to find that the janitors would be helping us set up for the show. The auditorium stage was extremely small, and as most of you know we don't exactly run on all cylinders at six in the morning! So with the help of the janitors we made it work! One of the janitors began chatting with us, asking questions about the job as usual, and in mid conversation said, "hey are you from Michigan?" We both laughed and said, "YES! How did you know?" He began laughing himself, and said, "I can tell by the way you pronounce your vowels, and I once worked with a guy from Michigan and he sounded just like you two!" So as we set up our screens we got a lesson in the art of the East Coast accent, which we've found to be more pronounced in states like RI and MA. For example the title of our show goes from "Charting Your Course" to "Chahting Your Couhrse." Overall the school was great and we had a fun day at work!

Turkey Day in the Big Apple

Finally it was time to say goodbye to our mom, and drive further east into the heart of Long Island for our last set of shows. This adventure led us to the streets of Amityville, which is site to the true story horror movie! AHHH needless to say we made our trip there short and to the point! We then made our way through Thursday night traffic off of Long Island, and back through Manhattan to get to Castleton on the Hudson NY! We spent the weekend recuperating from our NYC adventure, and then found ourselves in Springfield MA for the week leading up to Thanksgiving. Springfield may have been the most ghetto (unpleasant) of places that we've been to during our journey. As a matter of fact little did we know, but the car wash/gas station we were at was robbed! It wasn't until we were questioned by a Springfield detective that we got wind of the illegal activities going on inside! Happy to leave Springfield in the dust we made our way back to New York City to spend Thanksgiving with our Uncle Jim, who was coming up from Florida to visit friends. We had an awesome weekend taking in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from 57th and Broadway, eating a delicious Turkey Dinner, doing just a bit of shopping on Black Friday, eating dinner at a great little Italian place in the "village," getting a view of Times Square from the Mariott Hotel, and finishing of the weekend by adventuring through Manhattan to get some NYC style food network worthy PIZZA and Cheesecake! A weekend in NYC wouldn't be complete without a starsighting and while eating dinner on our first night there we spotted Luis Guzman from The Count of Monte Cristo walking the streets of Chelsea. We were sad to leave the Big Apple behind, but we had a wonderful weekend visiting family, and beginning to feel like New Yorkers.

ok so here it is...

Finally two more new blog posts! Dottie you can stop complaining now, but thanks for the motivation!
More pictures to come when they'll actually load for us! ENJOY!

The Lights Are Bright On Broadway!

Our next adventure landed us in New York City! For months now Melissa and I have been dreaming of visiting the Big Apple, and beginning to wonder if we would have to leave the east coast without ever stepping foot on its busy streets. Fortunately CAMFEL was on our side, and Melissa and I were to spend about 4 days on Long Island doing shows! Once my mom caught wind of this she decided that she MUST come to visit! So on Sunday after spending the weekend in Bethlehem PA we made our way to NYC to pick up Mama Fairbanks from the airport in Queens! Words can not begin to describe how excited we were to see our mom, and only a fly on the wall would be able to understand how excited she was to see us! Sure enough as we made our way to the baggage claim of Spirit airlines we spotted Big Mama with her arms wide open and waving at the same time with the biggest smile on her face. Since this was going to be a whirlwind visit to the Big Apple we decided to make the most of arrival day by making our way from the airport in Queens to Times Square in order to let the sight seeing begin! This involved us taking a bus to a subway station in the heart of Queens and catching the purple line to Times Square. It was quite the adventure as we became aquainted with the transportation systems of this huge city! Our first night was spent wandering around Times Square in awe of all the car/pedestrian traffic and city lights, we attended a church service at Times Square Church, whose founding pastor was David Wilkerson (of the Cross and the Switchblade). We ate pizza at the David Letterman building (Ed Sullivan Theatre) and eventually found our way back to the airport and hotel on Long Island. Over the course of the week we took the Long Island Railroad from our hotel to Penn Station, and from there ventured out into the city! We walked and walked, got lost, laughed, fought, were amazed by the city, got lost, walked and walked, laughed, fought, were amazed by the city...you get the picture! We definitely made the most of trip by taking a carriage ride and strolling through Central Park, getting dessert at Serendipity III, (as seen the movie Serendipity with John Cusak) went to the World Trade Center memorial museum, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Washington Square, (where I literally ran into Katie Deyarmond!) ate dinner in Little Italy, Rockefellar Plaza, and even met up with a longtime family friend for dinner at Chipotle! Believe it or not we even squeezed in work to our busy schedule, and were honored to have our mom there as our special guest! :) We woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning for a show in Hicksville. Our mom definitely got a taste of the CAMFEL life, and was pleasantly surprised by our show. As you can see overall we had a great time seeing our mom, and exploring New York City in a style that only the Fairbanks women can conquer!

PS. She likes it when we call her Big Mama...

Dunderheads Unite!

Don't ask me how but somehow we forgot about our weekend in Scranton PA at oh YES, the "Office Convention." Now for those of you who aren't sure what all of this excitement is about let me tell you...Melissa and I are fans of the show "the Office," which airs on NBC. I wouldn't call us die hard fans, but fans nonetheless. One day while "chilaxing" in PA we saw a commercial for the first ever "office" convention. Now being the spontaneous travelers that we are we decided that we NEEDED to be there. When will we ever be near Scranton (the town in which the show is set) again, and when would we get the opportunity to go a convention? So Melissa and I began figuring out a way for this opportunity to happen, and brushing up on our "office" factoids since we would be mingling with thousands of adoring fans from all of over not just the U.S. but the world! So over the course of the weekend we made a ton of memories that we feel are very noteworthy. First of all, we spent the weekend camped out in a Wal-mart parking lot in our van. Now some of you may think we're crazy, but for every night of free lodging we get, we also get up to 50 free personal miles from our company. So 2 nights in the van equals 100 free miles! The convention kicked off at the Radisson Hotel where you could meet and greet the cast. We mingled with some of the cast, heard Creed sing/play the Scranton Blues, and Erin got her picture taken with Kevin. All over the city they had jumbo-trons playing episodes, they had live bands playing all weekend and they even had "Dunder-Mifflin Olympics." There were several other events that you could only attend with a pass such as Q&A's with the cast and writers as well as a look-a-like party and Casino Night. Since we are too cheap to spend money on a pass, we spent the afternoon wandering around town taking pictures of the Penn Paper building, Mulberry St and the Scranton sign which are all a part of the opening for the show. At midnight both nights, we went to a local theatre that had free late night screenings of "Office" episodes. This made sleeping in the van much easier, because we wouldn't actually have to go to sleep until about 2am and by that time we were really tired. We ate at a pizza place called "Alfredos," that was recommended by the owner of the theatre and is mentioned on the show a few times. We also found a cool little coffeeshop that did amazing latte art. This was one of our favorite weekends, the weekend when all the Dunderheads united!

JERSEY TO BETHLEHEM

We left Amish town for New Jersey the second time around. The second time around redeemed the state of New Jersey. Not gonna say we LOVE New Jersey or would want to move there, but it was definitely better. We managed to snag a Candlewood Suites for the entire week. We did have to revisit the Cheesecake factory, we got to cook our own meal for the first time on the road, we fell in love with "Shop Rite," discovered the beauty of Red Box video rentals, got our hair cut at the Aveda Beauty School, and even went to a concert at the Electric Factory in Philly. All in all it was a good time. After our week in Jersey, we made our way to Pittsburgh with a stop on the way at Amy and Harpo's place in Lewistown. We got the opportunity to meet Bobby, one of Karen's friends from college (Karen=our boss). We stayed in a house right downtown near the University of Pittsburgh. Bobby showed us around town and even took us to the incline. It was really cool, the incline is a little tram that climbs up the side of Mt. Washington, overlooking the city. It was an amazing view, we saw lots of bridges and even Monday Night Football (go Steelers!) We had our first snowfall of the season while in the Pittsburgh area. We left the city behind and headed to the rustic middle of nowhere. We thought we had seen the middle of nowhere before, but this topped them all. We drove north towards Westfield PA, only to find that the nearest hotel that answered their phone was either an hour north into NY, or 3 hours south. We opted for 3 hours south so we didn't have to add to our already 4 1/2 hour drive and then back track in the morning. We found ourselves in bed by 8:00! A feat our parents couldn't even accomplish when we were children:). We got an early start (3am early) the next morning and drove and drove through a PA national forest. I'm pretty sure Erin's driving would have been more scary had I been coherent that early in the morning! Our uneventful morning drive suddenly became eventful around 6 am when we entered "God's Country" a.k.a Potter County. Erin's lead foot finally did her in, you can't get away with anything once you've entered God's Country, He's always watching! Needless to say we had our first run in with the law. You can image the conversation trying to explain an unmarked white van with California plates, a Michigan driver's license, and insurance and registration in our company's name. Thankfully the PoPo was very generous and let Erin go with a warning and a promise to slow down. Driving around a drug awareness program has it's perks. After our show that day, we ventured further into no man's land to check out the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. We had "one heck of a lunch," at "One Heck Of A Place" restaurant (yep, that's it's real name) and spent the afternoon walking around the woods and taking pictures of random signs and such we found along the way. We spent the rest of the weekend in the birth place of our Lord...Bethlehem.

CPYM

From Washington DC, we made our way along with Meg and Sandi, to Philly! We were going to stay with yet another friend of the girls for two nights. The highlight of our stay was when Sandi, Melissa, and I set up one of our huge screens right in the middle of their apt. living room! We brought in some of our gear, and created our very own movie cinema right there! We watched "Friends" until the rest of the crew, got back from playing a pick up game of basketball with our pizzas (pizzas won). We then put in Mission Impossible III and watched Tom Cruise on the BIG SCREEN! It was an AWESOME end to our weekend with all of our new friends! Melissa and I parted ways the next morning (Columbus Day) and while most of our co-workers were enjoying a day off we hit the road once again for three more shows. In the morning we found ourselves amid the middle school string orchestra of Warrington PA. This was quite the experience as we set up the screens to their lovely music (I use this term loosely) as well as dodging their bows as we passed by with our gear! Overall it was more funny than annoying. We then went to Holicong for an afternoon show. Now a few years back Melissa learned a goofy language perhaps much like Pig Latin. For every consonant in a word you add a "ong" So while setting up our show MONG-E-LONG-I-SONG-SONG-A had me laughing so hard, I seriously just about PONG-E-E-Dong my pants. That afternoon we went to Downtown Philidelphia for a famous Philly cheesesteak. We figured if we left the East Coast without ever having an authentic Philly Cheesesteak, then all of our travels would have been in vain:) ok so that might be a little dramatic, but really we were hungry, and Cheesesteak Corner was nearby. A little brief history of Cheesesteak Corner. In the heart of downtown Philly you will find Pat's King of Steaks. They have been located on that very corner since 1930 and are believed to be the originator of the Philly Cheesesteak craze! Across the street years later came Geno's Steaks. Both Pat and Geno claim to be the best, and have the best sandwiches. So naturally Melissa and I decided to put them to the test! First we had to learn "cheesesteak lingo" so with the help of a sign by I.M. Hungry we learned these 4 simple rules: 1. Specify if you want your steak wit (with) or wit-out (without) onions. (If your not a rookie this should come naturally) 2. Specify plain, cheez whiz, provolone, american cheese, or pizza steak. 3. Have your money ready. (Do all of your borrowing in line) 4. Practice all of the above while waiting in line. (If you make a mistake, don't panic, just go to the back of the line and start over!) So with the rules in our brains we ordered a "steak" wit onions and the whiz! We then made our way across street and ordered a "steak" from the competition this one wit-out onions and with american cheese! Finally the taste test! I must say the verdict was a unanimous TIE:) basically we were starved and couldn't taste much of a difference, but the bottom line Cheesesteak in Philly is the BEST! Wit our stomachs full from the "steaks" we made our way toward Shamokin Dam, Pa for our 3 week adventure with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ministries (CPYM). Our presentation provided them with an opportunity to make connections with both the students and the faculty in their area school systems. It was also a way for them to bring an awareness to the students about their clubs. During our time with CPYM we had the chance to meet some really great hospitable people! Who welcomed us into their homes and made us feel like family. Spending 3 weeks with this group of people made for some good times, so we'll just give you a few of the highlights.
1. Playing catch phrase with the Rumberger family
2. Eating a "Paul's Panini" with Matt at "Bread of Life Cafe." It was hard to choose between "Noah's Nuggets (which is just wrong), Paul's Panini, or a variety of "Apostletizers!"
3. HARPO AND AMY!!!! (enough said)
4. LaVerne (30 yrs in the ministry and still kicking!) and Ryan (the intern)
5. Indian Valley Homecoming football game
6. Sleeping in an empty parsonage in amish country
7. Chicken Farmers
8. Sandy's Lasagna (everything she cooked actually), the Graefe family, and our very own in-law suite
9. A surprise reunion with Sam and Evelyn Klingler (it's a small world after all!)
10. DANCE, DANCE REVOLUTION!

ON THE LAWN WITH GEORGE W.

So while we were in Delaware Meg called us and said that Sandi's friend who works at the Whitehouse (yep, the one on Pennsylvania Ave) was going to give us a personal tour and he needed our full names, birthdays and social security numbers. That is if we didn't mind getting up at 7am on Saturday. We were very reluctant...sleep....personal whitehouse tour....?hmmmm? Yeah right! We opted for the white house tour. We got to DC pretty late, but Matt (Sandi's friend) had to work late, so the four of us got to go to Starbucks and catch up since we hadn't seen each other since training. A few hours later, we met Matt at his apartment where we would be staying and also 2 of his roommates. Upon our arrival Matt surprised us once again with the news that we were not only going to see the Whitehouse, but the President himself! We stayed up until about 2am talking and telling stories, hearing stories about their experiences at the White House and the Capital. Matt and Sandi actually grew up together in Guam and hadn't seen each other in 10yrs. The guys insisted on getting us something to eat even though we kept telling them we weren't hungry. At first we were going to order pizza, but it was going to take too long, then they wanted to go to IHOP but not everyone wanted to go because they were tired, so they scavenged up whatever they could find in the kitchen. It was funny, they made and served little triangle sandwiches, chips and salsa, pickles, and macadamia nuts. It was a lot fun and definitely cool to meet new people.

7AM came bright and early! I'm sure it was quite a sight to see all of us trying to get ourselves looking presentable in order to see the President while we were so tired. One of the perks of Matt's job is that he gets passes to go and watch the President leave and arrive on Marine One right on the back lawn of the White House. This day, was our lucky day because we got to use his passes. We walked up to a side gate and made our way through security. We then got to walk around the back side of the White House past all the press cameras, through the rose garden and then out onto the back lawn. We even caught a glimpse of the oval office! It was a foggy morning and we joined about 50 other people who were waiting for a Presidential sighting. We waited for about 30 minutes when a PR rep came out and told us that the President's flight was going to be delayed because of the fog, but he would like to invite us into the White House. Matt told us that this never happens, in all the times he's come to see Bush it's never happened. We got to walk up the back balcony where the President takes pictures with foreign leaders and then made our way into the colored rooms that you get to see while on the regular tour. The difference was that we were actually in the rooms. We were on one side of the rope and the tour was on the other! We got to get an up close look at the painting of George Washington that Dolly Madison saved during the fire, we sat on the furniture and also got to take pictures which are usually not allowed! It was amazing, even Matt was excited, because he couldn't believe they were letting us do this. After about 20 minutes, the PR woman came back and said that the Prez was about ready to leave and we could either watch from the balcony or go back down to the lawn. We opted to go down to the lawn so we could get an up close and personal view of George W. We were in the front row and could definitely feel it as Marine One flew in and landed. There was really no need for any us to fix our hair that morning, because by this time it was ALL over and totally messed up. A Marine exited the helicopter and in his military fashion saluted and marched over to open the door. At this point President Bush came out waving his signature Bush wave. We were literally like 10ft away from him! He walked up to the helicopter door, turned around and waved and then boarded. After him came the Presidents doctor and the Presidential baggage. After they were all loaded up the helicopter took off and flew away. Obviously this was an amazing experience, that we will never forget! We didn't get to meet and greet the President but we did make eye contact!!!:)

New Jersey-the first time around

We got a call over the weekend while in Stroudsburg, that one of the Camfel guys had hurt his foot and was told by the doctor to stay off of it for a week. Since we were scheduled to have most of the week off, Karen told us we would be heading to New Jersey to help them out. We were not excited about this to say the least, but on Sunday night we headed to Cherry Hill NJ to meet them. We didn't have any problems getting to New Jersey, but we didn't have actual directions to the hotel we were staying at, just to Cherry Hill. We followed the directions and then decided to call the hotel to ask how to get there. Of course, the desk clerk had no idea how to get to their location. Seriously?? We needed to find somewhere else to stop and get directions, we were in luck because low and behold we turned the corner and what should our little tired eyes see...big red letters that said "The Cheesecake Factory!" Since we needed directions, we decided it would definitely be in our best interest to get them there. It made sense to us anyways. We got our cheesecake and a point in the direction of a road to check out for our hotel. The directions weren't very helpful, but well worth it! We spent the next hour driving around New Jersey trying to find our hotel. We stopped for gas 3 times, almost ran into a man trying to come pump our gas, ended up in the ghetto, ran a red light on purpose, and had a conversation about the price of cigarettes in California with an Asian man. We'll just put it simple...WE HATE NEW JERSEY! We learned a few things about NJ that night...you pretty much can't make a left hand turn anywhere in the state, you can't pump your own gas, or talk on your cell phone and drive. They even build these weird little turn around things so you can turn left. It's so strange, I don't know how people who grew up there know how to drive once they leave the state. After much confusion, we found our hotel thanks to a guy at "WaWa." It ended up being only about 9 miles from where we started! We spent Mon and Tues with Chris and Michael helping them set up and tear down their shows. It was nice getting to be with another team and being able to compare stories and share our experiences out on the road. On Wed we had to drive about 4 hours to Johnstown PA for our own show. On Thur. we headed back to NJ to help the guys out. They had a show on Friday in Delaware. We couldn't find any hotels in the budget, so we ended up spending the night in Maryland. It's pretty crazy, we were in 5 different states that day...PA, NY, NJ, MD, and DE. We had the privilege of staying at a Motel 6 that was connected to a truck stop. Yeah, you can image how nice that was, needless to say, the two of us slept in the same bed that night. It was fine though, because we only had to be there for a few hours since we had to get up early on friday. In the morning we all headed to what we like to call DULL-A-WHERE? We were very unimpressed with the state of Delaware, it's seriously like 25 miles wide and it's just blah. We were told to check out the beach, so I'm sure that was probably nice, but we figure they tell everyone to check out the beach because it's the only thing the state has going for it. We did a show at an air force base in Dover. We passed the school at first, because the guys drove right passed it following their GPS (aka Gloria) which had a tendency to lead them to places that didn't exist. When we got to the school and unloaded the van, the principal comes into the gym and asks who's in charge. Now remember we're at an air force base and this woman principal is much more intimidating than most of the men principals we've encountered so far. Michael (the country boy from Georgia/Florida) replies in his slow southern drawl, "Well Ma'am, we're all kind of in charge." She snaps back at him, "Well I need a leader! Who's going to be the leader?!" So Michael decides he'll be the leader this morning. She informs him that the assembly which is supposed to start at 9:00, needs to start at 8:15 so we need to be ready to go in 20 minutes! Since there really isn't a way to say no to this lady, we busted our butts and got the equipment up and ready by 8:15! The principal somehow forgot to inform the not so happy janitor of her changes. He was unpleasantly surprised when he heard the announcement over the loud speaker as he was pulling out the bleachers. We felt sorry for him. We did another show that afternoon in Dull-a-where. Overall, we had a good time working with Chris and Michael and we figured out why Karen would want us to go help them. It's because we're girls and someone needed to nag Michael to sit down and stay off his foot. We had a good time harassing him that week. While in Duhlawhere we got a call from our friends Meg and Sandi that they were going to be Washington DC for the weekend. We decided to drive over and met them there.

Michael the country boy

ADDENDUM...STROUDESBURG

So we forgot to mention one of our favorite memories that just so happened to take place in Stroudesburg. As you may or may not know, Camfel requests that the schools we go to provide 6-8 student helpers to assist us in setting up and tearing down our equipment. This can be either very helpful or often times very nerve racking. Most of the time helpful, but somedays, I'll admit I'm scared for the future of our country! On this particular day it just so happened that when we arrived at the school, the Principal told us that we would have a very special group of students to help us that afternoon. I'm not sure we were quite prepared for what was about to happen. We were met at the door by a young man named Joe and an aide. We went around and introduced ourselves, Joe introduced himself as "The Clown." We laughed, and asked why he was called "The Clown," in return, he informed us it was because he likes to "clown around" a lot. His aide then went on talking to him about how he wasn't going to be "clowning around" any more because he couldn't afford to get any more suspensions from school. We were just thinking, oh boy...here we go. So we loaded our cart and headed into the auditorium to start setting up. We got the first frame put together and had just snapped the screen on when Joe, aka "The Clown," decides to take a short cut and walk ACROSS the screen instead of around it. I'll admit, I was trying hard not to laugh, what can you do? So we get Joe off the screen and manage to get it up. I decided to give Joe his very own important job of holding the speedy cranks for me while I got the frame and the leg adjusted. I informed him that this was a very important job and once Erin and I got the screen lifted up he would have to help me screw the two together with the speedy cranks. So Erin and I positioned ourselves and lifted the screen. As soon as we did this, "The Clown" takes off running around the room with my speedy cranks! Not only is he running around the room, but he is waving them in the air and laughing a little wicked laugh. I tried to get him to come back, maybe by making him feel guilty, "Joe, you're not going to leave me hanging here are you? That's a really important job! We can't watch the video without the screens put together...Joe!" Didn't work. Needless to say Erin and I got the screen up and Joe's aide got to chase him around the room. Not even five minutes after we had experienced the clown in full force, the door bursts open and 8-10 more boys and an aide come trotting into the room. By this time, there isn't too much work left to be done, we had to put up the speakers, line up the projectors and tape down cords. The aide told the boys to go ask us what they can do to help and before we knew what was happening, we were surrounded by a swarm of very excited boys jumping up and down, asking "what can I do! I want to help! I want a job! It's my turn!" At first, they were a bit overwhelming, but we some how managed to delegate a job to all of them (which is amazing, since we are both horrible at delegating jobs!) By the time we could think of a job for one of them the rest of them would be done with the first job we gave them and ready for another one (well maybe not finished, but had at least lost interest in). Among these guys was a boy named Jason. Jason was really cute and stood out from the others, because he talked A LOT and surprisingly very intellectually. He had little round glasses and you can probably imagine what he looked like without me going into detail. Anyway, Jason had gone up to Erin and asked what he could do next. She didn't have anything for him to do, so naturally she tells him to go ask me what he can do. So he comes over and it was really cute, he says, "Melissa?...Is it alright if I call you Melissa?...(I said it was) I'm all yours Melissa, give me a job." Every time he talked to me, he started with "hey Melissa!" He would put my name in every sentence like 3 times. When we were finished setting up, we had a little down time, so we were talking with the kids. Jason was talking to Erin all about living green and how he was passionate about protecting the earth etc...in the middle of his story, he stops and says, "I'm not sure if I should tell you the rest of this." Erin asked him if it was appropriate and then Dave asked Jason if he knew what the word appropriate meant. Without blinking, Jason snapped up and said "unsuitable for others to hear!" Shortly after, he informed Erin that what he was going to tell her was that in the cartoon he was watching, the sun exploded and the rays of the sun shot down to earth and killed people. He was afraid she wouldn't want to hear about killing. He then proceeded to ask her to go to lunch with him in the cafeteria. He acted like he owned the school, he said, "I can get you into the cafeteria...I'll get you whatever you want. You want pizza? You want a sandwich? I'll get it for you, whatever you want." Unfortunately we had already eaten and the crew left for lunch. This is getting really long and is now longer than the original Stroudsburg entry, but there is just one more part left to this story. We had 2 shows at this school, the first one went smoothly, or crew was busy eating their lunch. Then somewhere in the middle of the second show, Joe (the clown) who was sitting on the front row, decided he had to go to the bathroom. I was standing by the doors closest to his seat. He proceeded out those doors and within a matter of minutes, I saw Joe enter through the other set of doors all the way across on the other side of the auditorium. It was at this moment that I saw a spark in Joe's eyes and knew exactly what was going through his little head. Joe revved himself up and took off running right between the projectors and the stage. You could see his arms pumping and his silhouette run across the first...the second... and then the third screen, it was somewhat reminiscent of "The Flash." Joe made it to his seat where he was scolded by his aide once again. He thought that was funny and I once again found myself trying really hard not to laugh! We got to meet some really interesting kids that day and it was a lot of fun. It's nice to know that we could be a part of making their day for them with something as simple as allowing them to help us set up our equipment. Just the small amount of time that we got to spend with them was really rewarding and they were one of our favorite group of helpers.

STROUDSBURG PA

After our time in VT, we spent a week in East Stroudsburg with a branch of PA Youth For Christ. We were a little nervous going into it, this being our first YFC and not really knowing what to expect. We were very much pleasantly surprised. We met Dave, the director and he took us to our "host" home. When we pulled up to the house, it was huge! We went in and met Dana and his wife LeAnn and their three kids all under the age of 5. Their house was beautiful and we got to spend the week in our own room with a huge king size bed and our own bathroom. This was the first time in a long time that we didn't have to worry about what was on the sheets or strip all the blankets off the bed, they actually smelled good!! The family had an awesome dog named Nadia. Nadia isn't just your average dog, she can actually open the door and let herself out when she needs to go, and then open the door and let herself back in when she's finished. It was crazy! Anyway, during the week we traveled all over the area with Dave, doing shows. We got to do a couple elementary schools which were fun, the kids really get into the video. Everyone took really good care of us and we ate SO good! We got to go to Ruby Tuesdays a couple times, which is our new favorite restaurant on the road, because they have the all you can eat garden bar. We got to go to this cool Thai restaurant which had the most delicious citrus iced tea and also to an authentic Mexican restaurant. The entire week was really encouraging, it was nice to see people who were following the call of God and loving others. They were willing to give what they had to reach out to those in need. There was also a missionary family from Bosnia who were staying at the house over the weekend. They were actually from Michigan originally, which was funny, because our hosts were outnumbered by Michiganders. It's sad that we'll probably never see any of them again...well, maybe someday.

VERMONT (Goin' On A Moose Hunt)

We were lucky to get to spend the next 5 days in the Rutland VT area. We got really lucky while booking a hotel on priceline and ended up staying at a Red Roof Inn in Killington. Killington is a ski resort area and so we had some awesome scenery and a great view of the fall colors on Mt. Pico in the Green Mountains. While we were there, we met a couple who were Camfel Techs in the 80's, Jeff and Amy. We had dinner with them on the first night. Their home had a beautiful view of the mountains, unfortunately it was dark when we arrived:( They were immediately welcoming and made us feel like family. It was great to relax and swap CAMFEL stories. Going to Vermont has given us a brand new perspective on quaint small town america. I was often reminded of the old movie "Baby Boom" with Diane Keaton. (she moves to vermont in the movie) anyway the five days we spent there were some of the best of our tour so far. Jeff and Amy hooked us up so to speak...giving us an opportunity to really experience Vt. We saw a Morgan Horse foal at her brothers house. These are original American bred horses, and one of Vermont's proudest exports? We later that day went kayaking! This was a first time for us, and one of the best ways to experience the beauty of Vermont's fall colors. Our kayaking trip lasted until after dark, so kayaking on a smooth Vermont lake in the moonlight was a moment that I wish my camera could have captured! I could have done without the bats dive bombing us for bugs on the lake, I somehow was able to control my girlie screams that usually accompany a bat sighting, and show that I was a real outdoors woman. The next day Amy took us to Woodstock VT. We saw the country's oldest covered bridge, the Simon Pearce glass factory(which when I make it rich someday will be the first place I order home furnishing), and the Queche Gorge (one interesting factoid about Woodstock...It was founded by the Rockefeller's, as in Rockefeller center, etc... When electricity was placed in the homes, they funded a project that would put all of the power lines under ground, so that the city would look better, and not be cluttered by electric and telephone poles. It was definitely a more sophisticated life over there) Our day of sightseeing ended with a scenic tour in search of a moose sighting, however all we accomplished to find was Puckerbrush Lane, in Felchville Vermont. Oh, and we almost ran out of gas:) Saturday night we had our first Church Show at their church. Setting up 45 ft wide screens in a 30 ft wide room was quite the challenge. In the end the show went off great, and the youth loved it I had to do a little closing speech, and I even had one girl come and talk to me after about what I said, which was nice. Sunday we went to church there, and for me it was a great way to end the Vermont tour. Oh! and I almost forgot to mention, we made a little trip up to the Crowley Cheese Factory. We spend many nights in our hotel rooms watching the show "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel. One night we saw an episode where Mike Rowe went to Crowley Cheese in Healdeville VT. When we found out we weren't too far from there we had to go check it out for ourselves. The cheese was amazing but we were a little disappointed that we didn't get to meet Bob the ghost.

Part 2 LA to NY

This is the second half of the trip out to NY. We are still dorky and this video is still probably hazardous to your mental well being....watch at your own risk!

Part 1 LA to NY (almost)

This is Part 1 of our video...I'm just going to warn you we are dorks and this video could be torture. It may take a few minutes to load all the way.

BUDGET INN 9/10ish

Sorry we haven't been able to keep up with the blog as much as we would like. We are going to attempt to compact a couple of crazy weeks into one blog, and then go from there. It seems that we've been all over since the last post NY to CT to MA back to CT back to NY, VT and then to PA! All in about three weeks...This is all in Retrospect...
Since we last left off Melissa had a birthday, she is now filling out retirement forms, and researching geriatrics. Unfortunately her birthday fell on a weekday, and we had to work plus travel. Her celebration has been put on hold. We did however find a high class ritzy motel to stay that night in Saratoga Springs, NY. HA! Actually the "Budget Inn" has ranked #1 on our list of worst hotels we've ever stayed in. They had pet geese and pet fleas. Yep, first we went into the room trying to be optimistic, it smelt bad to begin with, but we figured we were only staying a few hours by the time we got there, so we put our stuff down. I sat down on the bed and not even 2 minutes later a bug landed on me. I brushed it off and tried not to think about it, another minute...another little bug. This time I noticed it looked quite a bit like a flea. Still trying to be optimistic, I brushed it off and noticed it jumped a bit. Not even minute later, another flea jumped on my hand, I tried to get a good look at it. As I was, it jumped and hit me in the face! So yeah, that was the end of that. Erin went back to the office to either get our money back or a new room. The office lady gave us 2 more room keys. We went into the first room and it reeked of smoke and who knows what else. We tried the next room and Erin swears she saw luggage or something on the bed, you have to actually go all the way into the room in order to turn on the lights, so we weren't about to do that. We went back to the office one last time and this time the lady insisted that we try one last room. She said that it had been freshly painted and that it was on the other side of the motel. We agreed to check it out and she was right. It smelt like fresh paint, which is WAY better than pet odors. After it passed a flea inspection we decided that we could stay because by this time we were tired and starving. We've decided that we are going to celebrate our birthdays whenever we feel like it, when we find something fun to do, we'll count that as our birthday celebration. The next day we drove to Stillwater NY and did a couple shows and then we were off to CT (again!)
We did shows in Berlin CT, and then drove to Groton MA. Nothing too exciting or memorable happened, the next day we had to drive back to Bristol CT which is near Berlin. Oh, we were blessed with a nice Extended Stay America hotel over the weekend, just outside Hartford CT. This is where we celebrated one of Erin's birthdays. We went to a Mat Kearney concert at U-CONN on Saturday night. Mat was amazing and Erin is ready and willing to marry him as soon as he asks. If you ever get a chance to go to a Mat Kearney concert you should go check him out (musically that is)! ON Sunday night we ended up back in Patterson NY where the Kobers' were gracious enough to let us stay with them again.

This is when the drama begins...It began as a great night, we went to an ice cream social at the church, chit chatted, and stuffed our faces with free ice cream sundaes. That night we failed to bring our schedule into the house. Mistake number ONE!! We woke up at about 6:15 so that we could get ready and drive the 30 minutes to our show in LaGrangeville. Along the way we remembered that we didn't get directions from the first school to the second, so I asked Melissa to check the call ahead sheet. It was then that Melissa started asking me random question about the date, what time is it, what city are we going to... Little did I know that she was beginning to PANIC!!! Some how over the course of weekend when we were doing paperwork, we ended up looking at the wrong call ahead sheet. Mistake number TWO! If your following then you might have already guessed that we had the wrong day!!! YES we were working off of Tuesday's times when it was actually Mon. Luckily we had the right cities in our minds. By this time it is about 7:00 am and the show begins at 7:30 am! So we did what any good camfel techs would do WE FREAKED! WE SCREAMED! WE CALLED KAREN!!! To make the drama worse we didn't have any cell phone service in the area. So as I am frantically driving (mistake number three!) Melissa is holding her cell phone up waiting for a signal to appear. Finally we get a couple of towers so in order to call we must pull over to the side of the road, as to not lose the reception. There we are about 10 minutes from the school, and about 20 minutes from showtime at a complete standstill trying to figure out what to do, and how this is going to work out not only in our favor but CAMFEL's as well. So finally we got a hold of the right people, by a miracle were able to re-schedule the show to Wed. morning because our Wed. show was moved to another date. Not the most ideal situation since we lost our day off, but a necessary price to pay for our mess up. With the stress of the morning behind us, and about 2 hours of time to kill before our next school, we parked the van in a Freshtown marketplace parking lot. Took a nap, hacked some WIFI service, and the stress of the morning faded away. Melissa however found even more drama when she woke up with a case of serious pillowface! It was hilarious while I laughed so hard that I cried she began frantically hoping that it would disappear within the next 10 minutes. We made our way to a High School in Poughkeepsie set up, the show went on...the crowd was rambunctious.

After the "walking streets" of Boston we made our way to Newtown, CT which is the birthplace of the game scrabble. Newtown is a really neat small New England town, with lots of interesting history and beautiful landscapes. We had three shows at the Junior High, and then stayed yet once again at the Wellsley in Danbury, just up the road. This time around in Danbury we actually found "the town" or things to do, like the cinema, Borders Books and Panera. We tried to go to the movies but when we found out that it was $10 we high-tailed it right over to Borders where all the books and magazines are FREE to look at with no obligations. It ended up a great night reading, coffee, and live music.... On Saturday we took "Ugly Betty" to get serviced. This led us to the Danbury Mall (who knew!) We ate lunch, and window shopped, while the van got an oil change. Immediately following we took off for Lake Placid, NY. We drove and drove (in case you haven't noticed that is the theme of our blog) through some of the most beautiful scenery NY has to offer. It began to rain on the way, but it didn't really dampen our spirits. Thanks to our late start it got dark and a little bit spooky when we turned off the interstate and down the two lane state road that led to Lake Placid. I don't think that Melissa's references to the scary movie "Lake Placid" and the dark winding mountain roads, helped matters any. We eventually arrived safely at the KOA, and were led to our campsite by a security guard who was quite the jokster. We manuevered, "Ghost Rider" between two trees that overlooked a bluff, and set up camp for the night. This wasn't too hard since all we had to do was grab our blankets, recline the seat, and lock the doors! In the morning we woke up, stretched, walked to the bathhouse and then checked out. A short and pleasant stay at Lake Placid KOA (or as Melissa likes to call it KO8). Hopefully someday we'll get to go back and enjoy the facilities for a longer period of time. The morning was cool and crisp with a light drizzle, accented by foggy mountain tops, crystal clear rivers, stony bluffs, and painted forests. That was cheesy, but seriously it was absolutely beautiful! We spent the day in downtown Lake Placid, the home of the 1930 and 1980 winter Olympics, and now the Olympic Training Camps/facilities. We got to see the ice rink where the 1980 USA Hockey team won gold (refer to the movie "Miracle"). We found Lake Placid and walked out on the "boat owners only" dock, where we were thoroughly freaked out by once again Melissa's movie references and the smooth muddy waters of the lake. On a side note, Melissa has never actually seen the movie, but still knowing that there is a horror movie about a man eating reptile/sea creature in Lake Placid was enough for us.
Next stop...Plattsburgh, NY where we found an America's Best Value Inn, watched TLC all afternoon, and even found a coffeeshop called, "A Different Blend." CRAZY! We didn't actually get to go, but it's there! We drove the next morning to Champlain, NY which is on the border of Canada, and basically the furthest Northeast that you can go in New York. We did two shows there, and then drove to Ellenburg, where we did two more shows.

Rhode Island to Boston

So, finally I'm at a motel with wifi, and have the time to update the blog! Here goes about a month of craziness in two paragraphs. After leaving Rhode Island we drove down the coast and actually did get our first glimpse of the Atlantic along the way. We drove and drove, only knowing that it was Labor Day weekend, and had the next five days off to do as we pleased as long as we found ourselves in Montrose, NY on Tuesday morning. So without a place to stay, and adventure on our minds, we decided that maybe we could camp somewhere along the way. So as all things spontaneous go we saw a sign for a campground/beach, and got exited. Unfortunately it wasn't quite what we expected, and once again we found ourselves driving and driving. We did get to see Mystic Pizza, which if you recall was the setting for an old Julia Roberts movie. Someday when we're not driving homeless we'll stop and eat there. After a long evening of motel searching and no luck we decided that we would sleep in the van in a New London Wal-Mart parking lot. So with a little Ben and Jerry's and our friends from The Office for company we settled in for a night in the van. After a fitful night sleep for both of us, we attempted to start the van to get on with our day, only to find that the battery had been run down by the radio that we thought was turned off. Eventually we got the van running again with the help of a walmart auto center manager. We spent the morning exploring Downtown New London, the oldest port on the atlantic coast, and even found a cute little coffee shop by the pier. While we were there, we noticed it was a cruise ship port, so we decided to buy some tickets and go on a cruise. It was a short one down to the Bahamas and back, but we did have 5 days off...:) Heres a picture of our ship.
We later found ourselves in Danbury, CT for the weekend. It wasn't the most exciting weekend, we did find good pizza, and even better homemade ice cream. After the weekend we stayed in Patterson, NY with the Pastors from New Life Christian Chuch. It was very refreshing to get to stay in someone's home rather than a hotel or the van.

So, we have a lot of catching up to do, so we're going to make this brief....after NY, we headed toward Boston MA. After our school we decided to do some sightseeing on the very streets that Steve Tyler from "Aerosmith" walked. Needless to say, Boston wasn't really what I had expected. It's called the "walking city," the streets were so crowded and people were walking everywhere! They paid no attention to traffic lights or crosswalks, they would just cross the street when or wherever they felt the need. We walked along the freedom trail, which is a paved red brick path throughout the city that leads to different attractions or historic sites. We don't remember any history of the US and couldn't tell you what in the heck we saw except for the Paul Revere statue that we have a picture of and the USS Constitution, because we got to go on board. Oh yeah, and we also saw some foreigners becoming US citizens and some hip-hop/break dancers. Over all, Boston was fun and we walked and walked and walked, but I guess it isn't called the walking city for nothing.
"I think I'll go to Boston
Think I'll start a new life
I think I'll start it over
Where no one knows my name
I'll get out of California
I'm tired of the weather
Think I'll get a lover
And fly him out to Spain
I think I'll go to Boston
I Think that I'm just tired
I Think I need a new town
To leave this all behind
I Think I need a sunrise
I'm tired of a sunset
I hear it's nice in the summer
Some snow would be nice..."