Red: Give me your tired, your poor...

There's a group pushing for a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, and I'm honestly struggling with this.

I understand the idea of building relationships between non-Muslims and Muslim-Americans. I love that idea, actually. Isn't that what this country is supposed to be all about? I know we've had some problems with this before, but as far as I knew, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" still applied here in the United States.

In addition to the mosque, I read today that the Islamic Circle of North America has reserved multiple Six Flags amusement parks around the country for the weekend of September 11 for "Muslim Family Day."

Again, I'm okay with Muslim Family Day.

I am not okay with it being advertised as "the weekend of September 11," especially when Muslim Family Day has been held in August, late September and October in years past.

While talking to a friend who works in New York City, he said, "It's the weekend of 9/11. There were 3,000 innocent people that were killed by Muslim fundamentalists. Why do we need to celebrate Muslim Day the same weekend as 9/11?"

He continued, "Why can't it be in August or October? Granted, these people who want to celebrate Muslim Day probably aren't Muslim fundamentalists, but have some respect for the people who were affected by the tragedy."

Stretch my friend's ideas to the building of a mosque in New York City. Why does it have to be right there? Where's the respect to the families and friends to those that died? And why do I, as an American, feel like one certain group is exploiting that day and using it as their own celebratory day?

Immigrants are what made this country. I'd like to think that anyone living in the States (legal or not) has a sense of Americanism instilled in them. There's a reason all these people of different generations, nationalities and religions have come here. I don't find it outlandish to ask for respect for Americans' lives, especially while living here.

I'd love for the Muslim community to celebrate their heritage and culture, but as an American, I'd love the entire country to celebrate the lives of the 3,000 people who were tragically killed on that day and in New York, all racism and elitism aside.

Red: It's Been Awhile...

Alright, so Luke left the past few weeks to me. Let's see what I can fill you in on.

After we left Salt Lake City (that's SLC for all Luke's hipsters), we headed to Las Vegas for a few days before a week-long vacation. We got all our ducks in a row and we parted ways. While Beth, Janis and Gordy headed back to New York/Pennsylvania, Luke and I went to explore Ventura, California.

We didn't know this when we actually booked our hotel, but Ventura is actually called San Buenaventura (for all you non-Spanish speaking folks like myself, this translates to Saint Bonaventure). This means that everywhere we went, we saw all sorts of Bonaventure stuff, like a mission church...and...

Saint Bonaventure high school. There is NO escaping Bonas. Ever. You can be clear across the country and still be reminded that you have to go back eventually. Not that I want to at this point.

Anyway, Luke and I had a cracker-jack time in Ventura. We went to Anacapo Brewing Company to watch a few world cup games. I was filmed for a California beer festival commercial with Burt the Bear. I bought a USA soccer jersey, even though we lost, but I still love it.

We discovered the complete gorgeousness of the Pacific Ocean:

tapas and the difficulty of surfing.

Then we got back to Vegas for Freedomfest. We immediately found that the battery power had run out during the week we'd left the bus and everything in the fridge was...a huge, disgusting smelling mess. That, and there was very little air conditioning - problems that haunted us for the next few days.

Luckily, we were attending Freedomfest and staying at Bally's that week, so that didn't really drive us too crazy. The convention was good. It's safe to say that we all learned from it, made a ton of new contacts and...a new friend.

Miranda worked at the booth next to ours, and Vegas would not have been the same without her. We walked forever trying to find Chinese food, played penny slots and had one hell of a Vegas night that was originally supposed to involve cheap wine, Elvis and prohibit boys with mohawks, but it involved tons of other things instead. And it's also safe to say that none of us minded.

Due to the air conditioning problems, we were stuck in Vegas for a few extra days without our favorite person. While we waited for the bus to be fixed, Janis, Beth, Luke and I went to Auburn, California in the van to attend a tea party meeting.

The bus didn't find its way back to us until Saturday.

As a bit of an adventure, we went to San Francisco, and that's where we are now.

Friday night, we went to the Haight-Ashbury area, which I loved. I'm really hoping that's where we end up tonight, too.

I didn't really love the hotel we stayed at that night, though. I wish I'd taken pictures. It was very...interesting.

I do wish, however that I'd taken pictures of the Triton hotel. It was so artsy and random and fun, I could have lived there. Plus, they had Dr. Seuss books on the coffee tables. Those could entertain me for hours.

So we've seen a lot. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and I sang the "Full House" theme song. ["Crazy Aunt"] Meg came yesterday. We wandered around Mission Street and found Rogue Brewery where she and Luke tried to see who knew more about beer.

So I think that about covers it. I promise that we won't deprive you of the Legos for that long again.

Next on the agenda is possibly Sacramento and Reno, NV. Back to the blistering heat, but hey, at least the air conditioning's fixed. Stay tuned, sports fans.

The Week of Insanity

OK, so first things first, the title is misleading. It has actually been more like two weeks but I am going to leave the current week we are spending in California to little miss Red. We apologize for the lack of an update in so long but rest assured, when you see what all we have done, you will understand.

So we last left you in Wisconsin. Seeing as we are now in California there's a lot to cover, but I will do my best to be as concise as possible without leaving out any of the insanity, hilarity and the like.

After Wisconsin we headed to the great state of South Dakota. Now South Dakota gets a bad wrap for being vast, expansive and flat as a pancake with the only exciting thing being the occasional prairie dog. First off, whats wrong with a prairie dog? They're small adorable little creatures that should alone make the state worth visiting, but I assure you South Dakota has much more to offer. Case in point: The Badlands.

It was at our first stop that we learned something interesting. First off, the Badlands are home to the occasional rattlesnake as shown by signs telling people to be careful. Upon seeing said sign, our dear friend Red jumped about two feet in the air, grabbed my hand with a grip usually reserved for hanging from a lone branch 300 feet above the bottom of a ravine and informed us that she is deathly afraid of any kind of snake and will "vom" upon seeing one. We managed to convince her it would be fine and went to enjoy some of the views of this amazing natural spectacle.

It was shortly after that we learned we were wrong. Yes, in a matter of 10 minutes, we came across it. The behemoth, the diabolical, fang-ridden creature of death. Justina was off for the races, reaching the bus in what appeared to be under two seconds which can't be possible since we were about 200 yards away. But yes we walked into the face of death. A rattlesnake. At a whopping two feet and laying on a cliff ledge about 30 feet below us was the creature that was sure to strike fear into, well...OK not even a 4-year old would have been afraid of it. But Justina could not even bring herself to come within a 100 yards of seeing it.

We then moved on to the Black Hills, which for any of you folks out there unaware is where Mount Rushmore is. Of course, after arriving there it started to pour. And this wasn't your typical, boring grab-an-umbrella storm. No, this was the gods opening the sky and taking revenge on whatever the land had apparently done to wrong them. There was rain, lightning and marble sized hail. Not the most opportune weather for walking around outdoors looking at mountain sides. Of course who knows with the way we have acted in previous storms? And of course Beth, the fearless leader, did indeed stay outside waiting for the night show to happen (which of course did not because everyone else is at least mildly sane and thought "Hey! Thunder, lightning, hail - we should probably go inside and hunker down for a bit." Oh well, another poor handling of weather, big surprise!

Next we ventured to the great state of Wyoming. Now Wyoming sucks. I mean, this is a state that needs to be put down. It's been living on borrowed time since its initiation into the Union. I do want to elaborate a little. Wyoming has a lot to offer. Its all in one tiny corner of the state. There you will find part of Yellowstone and the Tetons. However we did not have time to get there and again its only the northeast corner of the state. So, needless to say, there is not a lot to discuss for the few days we were there except one thing.

Wyoming, land of plains, cowboys, and of course, buffalo if you are in the interesting part of the state. It was here that I ran into what was to be the hardest part about my internship. I was given a task I was not sure I could handle. A part of the job I never expected to deal with. We were at dinner on a buffalo ranch and boss lady Beth was perusing the menu. She came across a fine appetizer. In case you have not pieced it together yet let me make it obvious. Food. Buffalo. Appetizer.

That's right, we were all sentenced to the fate of "enjoying" a Rocky Mountain oyster. I assume we all know what they are, if not, look it up as Beth's 10-year old son ate some and was blissfully unaware and wishes to remain so, and as he is one of our readers I won't spoil that for him. But yes, we all were told by Beth we must eat one. We are traveling the country and need to experience new things. With much trepidation I accepted my fate, grabbed a deep fried flab of "buffalo business" in one hand, a beer in my other and went to town. I am making this sound way worse than it was. They actually weren't bad. Not sure I got the stereotypical chicken flavor but decent all the same. Anyway we all managed to get down a few with the aid of a beer of course.

Then we were off to by far the best area of the trip thus far. Now I may appreciate snow, mountains, ski resorts and the Rockies more than any human should, but trust me when I say that Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah are beyond gorgeous. There are snow-capped mountains year round, amazing architecture, mansions even Bill Gates can appreciate. But anyway, let's jump into the stop there.

We began our time in SLC (for those of you hip enough to appreciate a good acronym) at a local brewery to spend some time with a former colleague of Beth's. He is an elderly man around the age of 65 who is the top salesman for Dresser-Rand, a company that produces large pumps for drilling companies and such. It's a huge business and as the pumps can be millions of dollars I think you can understand that the kind of money this guy was making would fund a small country. He was, however, very down to earth about it. By this I mean he did not talk about his money, brag about it or think that he was better than anyone else. You do need to keep in mind that he is a salesman though. The one thing that great sales people like to do is show glitz, glamour and so on. When you have millions of dollars this is not a hard feat to accomplish as I found when he invited us back to his house the next day.

Now I know have built up what this house was like a lot and things very rarely live up to expectations but just wait and I promise I wont disappoint. Let's start by just driving to his house in Park City, Utah. SLC is home to some of the best ski resorts in the country. This house was situated in the hills overlooking three of them. We pulled up to the entrance to the gated community with views of Canyons, Park City and Deer Valley ski resorts surrounding us. We then proceeded to wind our way through the hills and roads passing houses owned by professional snowboarders, skiers and people the likes of Michael Jordan (yes Michael Jordan lived here too). 20 minutes after entering the gates we finally reached the house. It was a rustic looking cabin perched high atop the largest hill and was by far the most beautiful home I had ever seen on the outside. We were greeted by his two beautiful yellow labs. We then went up to the gigantic wooden front doors and entered what I can only describe as the ski chalet God Himself would vacation at.

The home was all wood and brick even on the inside. The back wall of the house was actually a giant glass door that slides into pockets making the home open air so you feel outdoors even while sitting in the kitchen or at his bar. There was, of course, a porch that the sliding wall opened up to. The porch provided a view over the rolling hills up to the Rocky Mountains and the three ski resorts. The kitchen was all pounded copper from the sink to the chairs. There was even a basin in the middle of the counter that could be filled with ice and drinks or anything else you wished. To the right was a full bar that even the most high end of restaurants would envy.

However, we have not began to touch the coup de gras. The man has spent a lot of time traveling the world for business. Many of these trips brought him to France, the self-proclaimed wine capital of the world. Through these travels, he became a wine connoisseur to put it lightly. He escorted us down his spiral brick staircase to his basement complete with pool table, bottom deck with hot tub,again looking over the ski resorts,and his point of pride, the wine cellar. Now, wine cellar makes it sound like a dungeon, but in reality, it was a large wooden room with glass doors filled from top to bottom with wines from all over the world. Each bottle was meticulously labeled complete with date of purchase and by what date it could be opened to ensure it had properly aged (some of which still had another 20 years to go). There was even one bottle that was one of only two produced in the world. It was his pride and joy.

We spent a fair amount of time speaking with him, seeing his house, his Porch, Hummer and, as he put it, his "junky fix up car" - a 2003 Jaguar. After about two hours, we decided to part ways leaving with a gift from him of three bottles of champagne and a bottle of wine.

Next, it was off to the home of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. It was at one of the main parts of the Park City resort. The road up to it gave fantastic views of the long jumps, bobsled and luge tracks as well as many other things. Much to our surprise there were people going off of the jumps despite the fact that it was 100 degrees and there was no snow. Apparently the surface usually hidden by the snow in winter is Astro-Turf that when watered down allows skiers to easily practice for the coming winter months. We even got to spend a fair amount of time watching people practicing aerials into a pool. Some were Olympic-caliber while others were 5-year olds learning for the first time in an environment much safer than the hard packed winter snow provides.

After an hour or so of watching, our always-adventurous leader Beth decided we needed to get in on some of the action. They offered ziplines and luge tracks and Beth decided it was critical to our lives that we participate. Now I don't see it as being a critical thing but what the hell, who is going to pass up flying down on mountain suspended from a wire or on a luge track? We spent the next hour or two making runs down the mountain experiencing thrills and adrenaline usually reserved for extreme athletes? Finally it was time to press on.

We then spent the next day exploring the city, meeting local activist groups, touring the Mormon Temple, which is one of the most amazing buildings I have seen both in architecture and location. I could go into detail on this as well but it would be another five paragraph tangent and everyone should take the time to travel there and view it for themselves anyway!



So now that I finally have updated to this point I will say adieu. I promise to not allow another lapse in entries like this.

Red: The True Meaning of What it is to be a Lego

Larger image here

Red: HELLO WISCONSIN!

We've been in Wisconsin since Sunday, and it's been pretty enjoyable.

We took Monday and Tuesday to do administrative work at Beth's brother-in-law's house just outside of Milwaukee. Somehow, we can never seem to catch up.

I didn't know Milwaukee had a beach until yesterday. When I posted this on Facebook, dear Elayna commented a few seconds later saying "No! Don't go in the water! You'll get ebola!" Sounds real promising, right?

(Still gorgeous, though.)

We got to the beach, packed some Constitutions in our backpacks and headed out to "convert some people." Luckily, Beth had our sanity in mind and reminded us, "Do you guys have beer with you?" (You should probably be jealous that you don't have a boss as cool as Beth.)

So Luke and I plopped down on the sand, avoided the water and what came next was better than T.V...except maybe How I Met Your Mother. Nothing beats that. And Glee. Oh, and That '70s Show.

Anyway, we watched a girl with her Chihuahua and multiple bags stumble across the sand, apologizing to the guy that was sitting about twenty feet in front of us. She unpacked a blanket and a bottle of wine and shortly thereafter, we found out it was a blind date.

I don't subscribe to Cosmo, but I've read enough articles to know that if you turn towards your date and he turns away and doesn't talk, he's just not into you. This means that you should probably tone it down.

This also means that you should not pull out your toy accordion to play for your date.

(If you look really closely, you can see the accordion. It's the blue thing in her hands that she's playing for the poor guy and her dog.)

I wish we could have seen the end of this date. It was our entertainment for a good hour, but we had to leave, so I have no idea how the accordion went over with this guy. If I had been in his shoes, I would have jumped in the lake, ebola or no.

I don't know what your definition of "campsite" is, but here's my rough idea: a place in which people temporarily occupy with various supplies, including, but not limited to: a tent, sleeping bag, firewood, or in our case, a 40-foot bus.

I do not define "campsite" as a permanent residence. In the place we stayed last night, there were over 300 permanent residences. Beth equated this place with the movie Deliverance. I equated it with The Hills Have Eyes. In any case, it was a little freaky.

We survived, though, and we went to Madison today. Madison restored my faith in Wisconsin a little. We parked outside the capitol building and tried to hand out Constitutions.

One guy took one, walked down the street, and returned it to us, saying he couldn't accept it because he works for the legislature.

I laughed at him. "You can't have a United States Constitution because you work for the legislature?!"

He went on to talk about codes of ethics and what he could and could not accept. He wasn't sure if he could accept our Constitution; I wasn't sure if I could handle Wisconsin's "codes of ethics."

Wherever we go, people like asking how living in a bus is. It's not bad. By the end of the day, I'm so tired that I have no idea whether or not my bed is comfortable.

People also like asking how it is being so far from New York. Honestly, I couldn't be happier, but I do miss a few upstate New York staples (in my life, at least):

Chill and Grill ice cream.

The quarries and bluffs.

Garbage plates.

Red Zeppelin.

My friends. (That '70s Crew included.)

I really want to stand on top of this bus and yell "Hello Wisconsin!" for them, just because I feel obligated to as Jackie "Jack Attack" Burkhart.

I do not, however, miss the cows. But I haven't seen one in the dairy capital of the U.S. Although I don't miss them, I feel kind of cheated about this.

Oh well. There's still a few more days.

Over and out,

Red.

Blue: Liberty Zombie

Well it's been a little while since the last post, or at least since my last post. To be honest I'm struggling to even write this one. See we have this "leader" and I put leader in quotes because she is closer to a robotic working machine than a human. Beth did learn about liberty, the Constitution, America, the founding fathers, and all of that stuff. Apparently this did not leave time for her to learn the joys of relaxation or sleep, or even a 10-minute break for that matter (see below where even while riding on top of the bus on a ferry on the way to Put-In-Bay, which I am way too tired to discuss, she still had to talk to people despite being 10 feet above them). Thus the days have consisted of waking at 6 or 7 a.m. and working until 1 or 2 a.m. Needless to say a lot of us have been dragging the last few days and for lack of a better term we have become Liberty Zombies. At least it's for a good cause!We last left you with the looming threat of a tornado warning at Bike Week in Sandusky, Ohio. Apparently we decided that the threat of 100+ mph winds, flying shrapnel and general chaos and catastrophe is best handled by simply going to bed in a bus in the middle of a field. Besides, tornadoes hardly ever do any real damage anyway, right? Well a "solid" four hours of sleep later we woke up to find that the storm we so casually dismissed was not the gentle creature we had treated it as. Only a few miles away the storm had unleashed its fury causing widespread damage and ending seven peoples lives. The bus managed to survive unscathed and with the exception of myself and Janis, the "Liberty Crew" managed to peacefully sleep the storm away. We decided we should probably implement a better plan than going to bed in a small sheet metal box in a field during a raging storm. But, of course deciding to implement one and actually doing it are two different things. So in the meantime, we will just continue to sleep through whatever Mother Nature wants to throw at us.

Bike week finished off really well with the highlight being Chet and Matt's Pizza. We were set up with the restaurant in Sandusky by a man named Bruce who informed us that of the 90 countries he has been to, Chet and Matt's had the best pizza. So a few phone calls later and a 10 minute drive we were set up in a parking lot, talking to Chet himself and doing what we do best, promoting liberty. Chet was the most gracious host you will ever meet. He was a huge supporter of our cause and did anything and everything he could for us including comping our meal and bar tab two nights in a row. Oh and the pizza, out of this world. Red and I highly suggest the buffalo chicken pizza which I can say is the best pizza I have ever had! And if you get really frisky you can take the "Kong Challenge" with one of your friends which consists of a massive pizza (see picture) and two side dishes that are to be consumed in their entirety by you and a friend of your choosing.

After all that fun Justina went off to spend the weekend with her boyfriend in New York City, I stopped home for a bit as the trip to drop off Justina at the airport took me past my house and the rest of the crew went to Tiny's in Wausseon OH where they apparently had an amazing time and were treated again to a fantastic meal.

The next stop for us was the blues festival in downtown Chicago, my favorite city. I cannot emphasize just how excited we all were for this and it did not disappoint. In a city known for the blues you can't expect any less I guess. As far as work goes it was one of our more lax events. We could not bring he bus in with us, so instead we went in armed to the teeth with Constitutions, papers and pens. Turns out Chicago is not the liberal city one would think. In fact, the majority of people where skeptical of our handouts because they thought we were handing out the "liberal edited" version. We managed to "get rid" of close to 300 Constitutions there and listened to some fantastic music. We even managed to take some time to walk around and enjoy the grandeur of Grant Park, where the festival was held. There was food, drinks, dancing, and good times for two days. We were interrupted by some rain here and there but it made for some interesting views of the buildings hidden by clouds and gave us some time to stop by a local pub. While it may not have been our most productive stop of this trip it was by far one of the most enjoyable.

We are now sitting at Beth's brother-in-law's house in Milwaukee. I have left out an unbelievable amount of info and for that I apologize. But again, as I am a zombie, I really do not have the time, energy or non-decomposed brain power to go into it all. Also blame the decomposing brain on any grammar mistakes that may (and I am sure do) exist. Until next time, Blue out.

Red: Hey, Saint Bonaventure! Over here!

I don't know if you've picked this up yet, but I'm a journalism major, and I've learned the number one rule of the trade: Omit. Needless. Words.

Here's rule number two: Spell. Your. Subject's. Name. Right.

On Saint Bonaventure's main website, they have a link to this blog, under which, my name is spelled Quigliata.

Quagliata. Q-U-A-G-L-I-A-T-A. Quagliata.

One I.

For a school that prides itself on being a great journalism school (which it is, by the way. I sincerely mean it.), you'd think that the people running the website would try and keep that reputation up.

Especially when I got four emails asking if they could use this blog on their main site.

Fail to impress.