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!