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