It's all in the moment

It's starting to sink in for the both us that we are leaving in less than a week. I've been thinking about the books I wanted to have reread before the trip but haven't. Two of them are 'On the road' by Kerouac and 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' by Pirsig. Great books and essential in more ways than one for this trip. The blog being a 'continuous scroll' for one, Pirsig's trip lasting 17 days another and living in the moment being essential for both books.

Living in the moment will truly be one of the most essential feelings for us. There are three parts to this journey - there's us, the car and the road. A set beginning and end, and that's it. Whatever in between is up to us. I can't fix the car if it breaks down ( I could if we were doing the trip on my motor bike) but we will sure be more confident in each other and any mutual challenges we might face in the future.

jonas

In the sewer

The dollar hit a five month low this week. I was counting on it happening but I was not really sure where we were heading around the time of the stock market surge. They're printing money as if it were a game of Monopoly and there are now even rumors of a downgrade of America's credit rating.

I'm kind of ambivalent to this trend. One the one hand we will save a great deal of money when the VISA bill finally arrives sometime in August but on the other hand we're talking about a possible meltdown of the leading currency. And with an ever more expensive euro Finland's export figures are starting to look pretty grim.

This is by the way one of the most discouraging things concerning the economy I've seen in a while. This is one of the most encouraging.

Jonas

Blazing through the US

If we didn't mention it we are making the 5000 km (3107 miles) journey in a Chevrolet Trailblazer. It's supposed to be a pretty solid ride and by the looks of the video below it can be driven anywhere, be it desert, asphalt or ice. I'm going to do daily updates on how it's performing. Being somewhat new it should last the ride right...?

jonas

This is by the way what Wolfram Alpha had to say about the distance. 0,77 of the Amazon River or 1/8 around the world. Really, wow!

iPhone going down

There is a chance the combination iPhone and AT&T might become cheaper than ever before. And that perhaps before the end of May. Good news, since we both have been planning on getting iPhones AND we need a 3G subscription in the US to do the updates to the blog, flickr and twitter. Let's see how this works out. Yee.

Shopping

With only two weeks left it´s time to start thinking about what we want to do in the US. One thing every female person who has ever been to America tells me is this, Shop. Shop till you drop, more like it. You might just want to take some extra bags with you to have room for all the stuff, one said.
Well we´ll see how much time there´s actually going to be for shopping, but this place kind of cought my eye any way. We´ll just have to make time I guess.

Anna

Our common heritage

We are visiting relatives in Washington DC who are descendants of Finns who went to America in the early 20th century. This is part of what makes America interesting - the only native inhabitants are Native Americans, the others being settlers and immigrants who for one reason or another left for the great land in the west (and east, north or south for that matter). The only Finnish heritage I can find in the chart is up at the Canada border but the chart shows majority ancestry. If I'm not mistaken, my grandmother stayed in the same region in the 1920' after not being able to enter New York and continuing to Canada.

Many Americans I've spoken to find it interesting that we are from the Nordic region as so many left the small countries in times of need seeking better fortune in America. In some places the traditions run deep and the interest in our common heritage is still strong. In the end we are all one and the same in this melting pot so we need to stop bickering and start cooperating. That is what we need in these troubled times.

A friend of mine made a documentary on the 110 year old newspaper Norden (link in Swedish) in New York edited by Rune Erik Hermans a few years ago. I couldn't find any links to clips but the article on him is an interesting read on a passionate soul.

Jonas

Up down and all around

Ok, so let's summarize the situation so far. We have a spreading swine flu (for a lack of a better word) and many companies soon filing for bankruptcy in the US. Both Avis and United Airlines are predicted to merge with other companies in 2010 to avoid bankruptcy and these are our two traveling partners. Joy! These are strange times we live in.

But the Colorado Avenue showing in Telluride is confirmed, we have most accommodation fixed and the euro-dollar ratio is still strong. So the odds of this being a trip of a lifetime is on our side.

Here are two very interesting documentaries to keep you warm - I.O.USA and Inside The Meltdown.


Jonas

A run on guns

Today I learned that the Americans are buying guns and ammunition like never before. Apparently the economic crisis and the Obama administration have made the nation run for its guns. People seem to be afraid that the ´new president is going to compromise every Americans right to own a gun, so now they are stocking up while they can. The financial situation again is making people buy weapons for home defense, as times get worse crime rates go up. And so do the gun manufacturers shares, which have about doubled since January.
So if I´ve got this right people are buying guns and ammunition because they´re worried that soon they won´t be able to do that anymore. And if they don´t have a gun they can´t protect themselves from the other guy who´s holding a gun to their head and trying to steal their belongings. I get the idea, but I´m not sure I agree.
To someone who lives in a country where you have to be a member of a sports shooting club or a hunting club (for like a year) to even be considered as a customer in a gun store, all this just seems a bit out of control.



Anna

We ♥ America - visit card

We ♥ America - visit card
Originally uploaded by JForth

This will be a small social experiment.

We will drop these everywhere during the trip. If you stumble upon one, you will find all our trip, blog and Flickr information on the other side.

See you at your local airport, restaurant, casino, motel or shopping mall!

New York New York

I just finished watching the SATC box and realised that in less then 8 weeks we´ll be in New York, exciting! I realise that it probably wont be quite as glamorous as it seems from the couch at home, and maybe that´s just as well. But we still have to figure out how we want to spend our days in our final US destination. So much to do and so little time. When we reach New York we´ll probably be completely exhausted after a few weeks on the road, but hopefully not completely fed up with America and each other ;)

I just heard that one of my best friends is going to be in New York just a few days before us. Major bummer that we miss each other like that, how fun wouldn´t it be to explore the city together. But I guess we´ll just have to share our pics and experiences back home.


Anna

Lost luggage

I (Anna) read this somewhat worrying article in The Wall Street Journal about lost luggage. According to the article it is the largest airline companies that are most likely to loose your bags. That´s no chocker. But the fact that the rate of mishandled luggage for the major american carriers has gone up 28 % during the last ten years, at the same time as passangers in the US today have to pay extra for the luggage service that used to be free, has drawn some attention.
23 million people have had their bags lost or delayed over the past decade. That´s a lot of bags. United Airlines, among the top three worst luggage handlers, are handling our bags.
Fingers crossed.

Sending home some Eames

Anyone who knows me (Jonas) knows I love the Eames(es) and their philosophy when it comes to product design and the view on life in general. While in the US we planned on sending home some Eames furniture, the Hang-It-All, a LCW and a LTR. Does anyone have experiences on shipping bulky things that can't be packed normally? Who should we use for shipping it to Finland? What should you write on the package slip?

We Twitter now / Vi Twittrar nu

Vi bestämde oss för att lägga upp det så här:

1. Korta meddelanden om vad vi gör dyker regelbundet upp på Twitter. / Short messages on what we are doing are regularly posted on Twitter.

2. Längre grejer läggs upp på bloggen som du är på nu. / Longer pieces are posted on the blog where you are now.

3. Och bilder och video läggs direkt upp på Flickr. / And images and videos are directly posted on Flickr.

Spänningen stiger.. / Oh, the excitement..

Thumbs Up St. Louis

Träffade två trevliga damer under MIPTV-mässan i Cannes för två veckor sedan. Michelle och Jennifer lovade inhysa oss under vårt mellanstop i St. Louis och det lär bli verkligt intressant. Lovade i gengäld marknadsföra deras skapelse Thumbs Up Johnnie på alla tillgängliga kanaler.

Telluride

Våra övernattningar börjar vara bokade för i stort sett hela resan. Vi kontaktade några bekanta i Telluride, Colorado för att se om det skulle vara möjligt för dem att ordna med övernattning i ett rätt så dyrt skidcentrum. Mot bakgrunden som koordinator för filmen Colorado Avenue så tände de direkt och önskade att vi kunde hålla en presentation av boken, filmen och Tellurides roll i det hela som en fundraiser för museet i stan. Så nu lär övernattningen och kvällsprogrammet vara ordnat. Det här blir bra.

The unemployment is spreading

I read an interesting article in NYT about the employment situation in the US at the moment and one can only conclude that it does not look good. During the trip we are moving across the spectrum and it will be interesting to see how the opinions differ from state to state. The red and brown areas are the most affected and there are unemployment numbers up to 25 percent. That's tough.
Here's and update on the employment situation from May.

Jag läste en intressant artikel i NYT om sysselsättningssituationen i USA för tillfället och det är bara att konstatera att det är snabbt på väg nedåt. Under resan kommer vi att röra oss över hela spektret så det blir intressant att se om åsikterna om landet framtid skiljer sig stort från stat till stat. De röda och bruna områdena är mest drabbade och man kan se siffror ända upp till 25 procent. Det är tufft.













Bilden courtesy of NYT

Dopplr - du vet var vi är

Flickr to Blogger

20090211053
Originally uploaded by We Heart America

Testar att fotografera med mobilen och direkt uppdatera bloggen genom Flickr.

Vi använder oss av denna monstrositet. Med sköna 5 megapixel kan man ta riktigt ok bilder och video med den. Måste bara hitta ett förmånligt amerikanskt 3G-abonnemang för en månad så man inte väl hemma får några trevliga överraskningar av Elisa. Jag har förstått att AT&T erbjuder bra alternativ. Bara de inte sjunker ner i konkursträsket före det.

Musik non stop

Vi spelar musik från Los Angeles till New York och här är skivorna: CD 1 & CD 2. CD 3 fylls på efterhand. Ibland går det på känsla, ibland på geografi men mest är valen baserade på ovanligt god smak ♥.

För att lyssna på skivorna behöver du bara ladda ner det utomordentligt oumbärliga programmet Spotify och sedan klicka på CD-länkarna ovan.

LA till NYC

Skapade en preliminär rutt för resan.

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