Video of the Journey Search

775 Mile Journey in Search of a Dodge Journey

Let me begin with where this idea was born. About two weeks ago while watching television, Josh and I saw this commercial for the new Dodge Journey.

I had every intention of going on YouTube to discover the rules of the search, but I completely forgot. Luckily Josh remembered to look it up and, after screen capturing some of the clips from the initial commercial, determined that the Dodge Journey had to be somewhere in Northeast New York or Vermont. This opportunity to find a new car was too awesome to pass up, so we decided that we were going to drive to the area on September 24th to give it our best shot. In order to prepare, we bought an atlas of Vermont to try and give ourselves a search radius. We also came across an invaluable blog that was dedicated to solving video clues for the East search, so we scoured the comment board for ideas as well. What we eventually discovered was that Dodge made a mistake in offering a wide frame shot of the final location of the Journey in the East Search, and by using Google Earth, most people determined that it was on Mt. Independence in Vermont. This brought up many questions about the fairness of the search. Many figured that the Journey would either be found within five minutes of the contest starting, while others were hoping that Dodge was aware of the discovery and that they had a contingency plan for another location. Luckily, the latter is what occurred.
On the morning of Saturday, September 24, Josh and I departed from my parents house in Galilee, PA at 7:40am. We drove straight to Queensbury, NY, and found a Starbucks to setup shop in because I had a plan of sorts. Since everybody assumed the Journey was at Mt. Independence, we both figured it was pointless to go to such a congested area, especially since one needed to take a ferry from Ticonderoga, NY, to even get to that location in Vermont. By staying in Queensbury, this gave us a central location to Ticonderoga and Albany. Our reasoning was based upon the numerous inconsistencies and paradoxes within the original commercial because it shows the Dodge Journey driving in four completely different directions.
The first clue was launched at noon and gave us a starting radius of 500 miles from Albany, NY. This came as a bit of a shock because many were assuming a radius of only 100-200 miles. The bigger surprise was that the next four subsequent clues that would be released each hour until 4pm only narrowed the radius by 25 miles each, giving a radius of 375 miles on the final clue. (If you would like to watch the clues released by Dodge, which I would highly encourage, you can go to Dodge's YouTube Channel and scroll down to where it says, "And the clues that led to the Journey.") Considering we knew what the first four clues were going to be in terms of location, we felt it was best to sit in Starbucks until the final clue was released. We occupied our time with trying to determine a direction and checking on a live update blog, the live feed of the Dodge Journey, and Twitter. Once the final clue was released, and it oddly saying that the Journey was within 25 miles of the last clue, we determined that it would be best to drive to Vermont via Route 4 to avoid any congestion. We knew Dodge had put up a sign right before the turn onto Route 73 off of Route 74 east in Vermont, so we assumed that we had to just look for these signs.

As we got closer to Route 74, Josh thought it best that we try to take some back roads to search on because the West and Midwest locations had been remote. Also, the last clue spoke of a marathon, so we were trying to search an area that was 26.2 miles from Schroon Lake, NY. We soon began coming across numerous vehicles from out of state who were obviously taking part in the search. We drove down remote dirt roads and dead end roads leading to farms trying to determine where this barn was, as this image of our Google Maps route indicates.
Around 5pm on Dodge's Twitter we realized a bit of bad news. They said that the Journey really wasn't within 25 miles like the last clue video had stated, but within 375 miles. They also said that a slideshow would be played starting at 6pm to show landmarks on the way to the location. With this slightly demoralizing news, we decided to pull off the road and access the internet for the slideshow. My mom was watching at home and calling with tips of possible directions to drive in. After about a half hour of almost useless pictures, minus a handful of buildings, we decided that our best bet was to drive back on 74 west and take the turn onto 73 like the Journey in the 500 mile clue. This seemed to be everybody's idea because we soon found ourselves in a convoy of about 8 cars all driving frantically in the same direction. Any place there was a passing zone, cars went zooming by, or I passed the slow drivers in front of me. We began to see some of the buildings from the slideshow in Orwell, VT, which gave us hope that we were on the right track. Josh was on the phone with my mom and watching the slideshow to try and figure out which direction to go in. We made it to Brandon, VT, and pulled off the road, just like all of the other cars, because that was the last image given in the slideshow. Instead of waiting for it to continue, we made a wild guess and hopped on Route 7 south. This happened to be a very smart move and we actually found ourselves ahead of the clues in the slideshow. Josh's friend Dan was also trying to keep us updated to a direction, as were my parents. My dad discovered a barn behind a restaurant in Killington, VT, that seemed promising, but then the next slide indicated otherwise. I continued to drive as fast as I could without drawing attention down Route 4 towards Woodstock, VT, and Quechee. After some careful thinking, we felt it was best to get on Interstate 89 south, and got off in Lebanon, NH, so that we could pull into a parking lot and wait for the next clue. Unfortunately, this was at 9pm and Dodge wrote on the chalkboard in the live feed that the slideshow would continue at 9am the next morning. This was quite demoralizing because we had such high hopes that we were ahead of the crowd and on the right track. As much as we wished to continue, we knew that we had to be back in Hellertown for Josh to teach Sunday school in the morning.
On one last whim, though, since we didn't want to give up too easily, we realized on the blog that somebody had mentioned that there was a Journey's End Farm outside of Providence, RI. This was 204 miles from where we were currently, but it fit into the radius that Dodge had implemented, so we gave it a shot. Around 1am, we rolled slowly down a dead end road past this farm and saw a barn with lights on. After 3 drive-bys, we determined that the barn didn't seem to match the one from the live feed and we didn't have the nerve to trespass so early in the morning. I didn't think getting shot at while in search of a car was something I wanted to chance. With that in mind, we began the journey back to East Stroudsburg. We took I-95 south through Connecticut and around 3am, decided to pull off in a rest area for a 1 hour nap. I then drove the rest of the way home through the Bronx, across the George Washington Bridge, and through New Jersey before making it back to my apartment at 6:30am. All in all, it was a very fun excursion. We managed to travel through 8 different states all within the span of 23 hours, so not too shabby. For all you visual learners out there, a map of our entire route can be seen to the right so you can visualize how far we actually drove. Also, once I work out the technical difficulties, I will be posting a video of our entire excursion. On a final note, the Journey was found around 5pm on Sunday up on the northern coast of Maine.

Golden Monkey and Nintendo Wii

Last night, as a means of avoiding some loitering followers of the Insane Clown Posse and their all-too-real-looking rifle, I took a short fifteen minute drive over to Stroudsburg to enjoy my weekly visit with Grigs. We are both quite competitive when it comes to Nintendo Wii, which is a great outlet for her job stress and my over-thinking stress. To make things more interesting, we each slowly consume a bottle of beer during our 2 hours of jumping around the living room trying to recapture the power serve in tennis. Maybe it's because I'm a lightweight, or maybe it's because I haven't eaten for a few hours, but I've discovered that a bottle of Golden Monkey packs quite a punch. Those Belgians must have special hops for brewing, which is much more pleasant to consider than them using fermented monkey feces. Needless to say, I'm glad that we jump around for two hours so that my body can metabolize the alcohol before I drive home. Once we get tired of exerting ourselves in tennis, which I tend to dominate, we move on to bowling, which I struggle with at times, especially when I forget to release the ball properly and end up with a human strike, which involves tossing the ball into the crowd standing behind me. Grigs and I are both amused at our change in temperament between tennis and bowling. While we are still competitive at bowling, we tend to compliment each other when we get strikes or spares. Tennis, on the other hand, is much more cut-throat with threats and our bodies bouncing around the living room. It is definitely one of the highlights of my week, though, to just be able to let lose and pretend like a kid again. As Grigs likes to say, we are channeling our inner middle school child.

Car Fixing and Examining Flood Damage

On September 10, Josh and I left early in the morning to head to his parent's house in Granville Summit. Most would view this as nothing out of the ordinary, except two days before, remnants of a tropical storm dumped 9 inches of rain on the Susquehanna River Valley, which in turn submerged numerous roads and towns. As we headed north, we noted many flood ravaged areas and could actually see how high the water had been considering there was a layer of mud on the tree leaves. We stopped at the Asylum overlook in Marie Antoinette so that we could get a nice view of the swollen and muddy Susquehanna.
Once we reached Wyalusing, we needed to start taking detours because water still covered numerous roads, making them impassable. After some meandering around, we made our way back onto Route 6 West, only to be diverted again outside Wysox. After the detours and taking the other end of the road, we finally made it to Josh's parents.
We ate lunch before Josh set to work fixing the shift cable in his car. I spent my time pacing and discussing different topics with his family. Once the car got fixed, we decided to go for a walk to look at some of the flood damaged roads. There was one road that was completely chewed up by all of the water at one end. As we continued walking along the road, it soon became apparent that the road was no longer a road, but a stream. The pipe going under the road had become partially blocked, which diverted the stream from it's actual route and converted the road into a stream. As you can see, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Josh and I then backtracked and made our way to the other end of the road he lives on to see why it was closed. Pretty much, the pipe was washed away, caving the road in so that there is now a 20 foot drop-off. Needless to say, it's amazing how powerful water can truly be in immense amounts.
The rest of our evening was quite pleasant. We all had pizza for dinner and the general consensus was that chicken wing pizza with bleu cheese tastes like paint. Following dinner and conversing, we decided it was best to begin the trek south again. In order to avoid the detours we encountered on the trip north, we opted for driving through Williamsport on the way back to East Stroudsburg.

Jazz at the Deerhead Again and Mass Exodus from NYC

After a nice dinner at Elegante in Honesdale with my brother and Matt, we trekked down to the Delaware Water Gap to the Deerhead Inn to listen to some jazz. The quartet was made up of drummer, Drori Mondlak, alto saxophonist, Karolinna Strassmayer, bassist, Phil Palombi, and vibrophonist, Stefan Bauer. The waitress had suggested that I get a new dessert that had just been made that was a mocha mouse with chocolate chips. In my own words, it was fantastic! As was the jazz. The songs that were played included, "The Tragic Lives of Maximilian and Carlota," "After All," "If You Could See Me Now,"and "Look Up." After the first set, we all were chatting with Stefan Bauer. He is from a town along the Ruhr River in Germany and two days earlier, he had just played a gig in Hawley. He really likes the Water Gap area and could see himself living here one day. It was definitely a very chill evening and if you happen to like jazz, I would definitely recommend the Deerhead Inn.
As for the mass exodus, Hurricane Irene, is bearing down on the east coast and New York City Mayor Bloomberg ordered mandatory evacuations of parts of the city. This of course means that everybody is flooding into the Poconos at the moment, which has left Interstate 80 West at a near standstill since it is flooded with out of state cars. As much as I don't want anybody to get hurt, these evacuations better be worthwhile and not just a waste of people's time. I guess we will know more about that come Saturday night and Sunday.

Trek to the Mountain for Some Stress Relief

 On Wednesday, Chrissy and I decided to escape the Burg for some stress relief. We both needed it desperately, but for different reasons. For me, it was due to the frustration of job searching to no avail, whilst Chrissy has her last semester of classes and her prospectus looming. Needless to say, we needed some distractions. We started out by playing cards with my mother. This is always a good time because we throughly enjoy beating her and laughing about it. Since I needed something else to also keep my mind off the fact that my 15 year old cat, Midnight (aka Furface, Droolface, Demon Kitty), had just passed away in her sleep Monday, I decided to assemble a bunch of army men outside so that I could shoot them with a .22 rifle. Some might find this odd, but I find it to be quite soothing, and yes I promise I'm not some crazed psychopath. Anyways, my stress was quickly alleviated after aiming at the plastic army and Chrissy joined in on the fun. Soon, though, she had to work on her prospectus and I washed my car since it was filthy. Following a delicious steak dinner, my dad let us target practice with a .22 handgun and a .32 Ruger revolver. All in all, it was a very successful stress-relieving day =)

New Orleans: Bike Tour, Jazz, Riverboat Cruise, and the Red Hat Society

On August 16, Chrissy and I were kindly driven to JFK airport by our friend, Oliver, at 2am. We arrived at JFK around 4:30am in order to catch our 6:45am flight to NOLA. We got through security easily and then had time to nap on and off before boarding our JetBlue flight, which happened to get delayed an hour.
We landed in NOLA at 9:30am and quickly found a cab to take us to the French Quarter. Upon arriving, we strolled through the French Market. We passed the Joan of Arc statue and continued our walk along the Mississippi River. Soon we found ourselves in front of a statue of Bienville, the founder of New Orleans, before wandering past the House of Blues. We chose to loop back towards Jackson Square, where we heard some decent street performers playing jazz. We scooted through Pirates Alley and then decided to rest and have beignets at Cafe du Monde. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the beignets were phenomenal! Some more street performers could be heard playing across the street as we ate, which just made the experience even better.
After sitting for about an hour, we continued to wander the French Quarter, poking around shops and taking in our surroundings until we decided to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Ambassador Hotel for our three nights. Apparently it used to be an old coffee warehouse, which makes for some very unique room setups. We had a glass door and window that opened into the hallway, along with 12-foot ceilings in our room. The hotel also happened to be right across from a fountain that was a part of the Italian Embassy on Tchoupitoulas Street. Chrissy and I chose to frolic in the fountain in an attempt to cool off in the hot weather. Soon, we found ourselves back along the Mississippi enjoying the Riverwalk and the breeze until we thought it was best to take a nap since sleep the night before did not exist.

Following our four hour nap, Chrissy and I went out to Huck Finn's Cafe for dinner. I chose a chicken sandwich while Chrissy settled for a pulled pork po-boy. It was a very relaxing evening and our waitress was quite pleasant. After dinner, the river was calling us so we sat along the banks of the Mississippi to absorb the peace that can only be found in the middle of the night with the breeze of the river against your face.
The next morning we awoke early in order to get some breakfast in the hotel before meeting with our tour guide, Bob, from Big Easy Bike Tours. We soon embarked on our epic 5 hour bike tour around the city. We began along the Mississippi River and checked out the Holocaust Memorial. Bob then explained how the highest elevation in the city could be found along the river's banks and that flood waters from Katrina actually came from Lake Pontchartrain, before entering the French Quarter. Bob explained all of the architecture to us and how the original houses only had side entrances when they were built and how they all had to be made of brick due to fires that had broke out in the city, though most of the brick had been covered in plaster and artisans had etched the plaster to look like large blocks. He also explained and pointed out the design of the original cobblestone streets in the city. Bob led us down Esplanade Avenue, continuing his thorough explanations of the architecture and the color schemes that could be found in particular neighborhoods. Eventually we found ourselves in a cemetery, which was full of mausoleums, the burial preference in New Orleans due to the sandy soil and water being found six feet down. Bob thoroughly described how the family plots were used and couldn't be reopened for a year and a day after somebody was placed inside the tomb. During times of yellow fever, rental tombs were utilized before the bodies were placed into the family tomb. Bob also explained that if one could not afford a family tomb that a society tomb was an option. There were Italian, Fisherman, and Nun tombs to name a few of the different societies. We continued on towards the New Orleans Museum of Art and into the park to look at the oak trees. We soon stopped so that we could have our picture taken next to a 600 year old tree before continuing on towards the Garden District after passing Tulane Medical Hospitals. Once in the Garden District, Bob pointed out some of the traditional mansions and architecture of the area, along with some homes that appeared out of place due to the paint choices on the exterior. We also went by some celebrity homes, which included Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, John Goodman, the home where Peyton and Eli Manning grew up (which had a car outside so Bob figured one of them was actually home), and Sandra Bullock. Bob then brought us to Tracey's for lunch. He told us how the po-boy got its name and shared how he got into the bike tour business. After lunch, we slowly pedaled back to our hotel for the completion of our tour.
Following our bike tour, we relaxed and discussed possible evening activities. We decided to wander the shops at the Riverwalk Marketplace before catching the ferry (on our third attempt) across the river to Old Algiers, which was on the west bank of the Mississppi River. There was a statue of Louis Armstrong erected near the ferry dock and a levee that we wandered along in the light summer drizzle before we crossed back across the Mississippi. We opted for fries at Huck Finn's Cafe before heading back to the hotel.
Thursday morning we hopped a streetcar on St. Charles Street in order to get to Tulane University so that Chrissy could explore the school she had always hoped to attend, but could also serve as a future place of employment. In our usual style, we made a beeline for the University Bookstore. After the bookstore, we found the Political Science building and were actually able to give a woman directions to the bookstore since we had just been there. We took the streetcar back towards Lafayette Square after circling Lee Circle, which has a statue of General Lee facing north because southerners believe he would never turn his back on the enemy.
After a brief stop at our hotel room, we wandered down to the Mississppi River to board the Steamboat Natchez for our 2 hour riverboat cruise up the river. We learned about the levees, the 9th ward, and the different boats that could be found on the river. We passed the Old US Mint and the Domino Sugar factory, along with a Navy Yard. Our boat turned around near St. Bernard Port, which was about 8 miles downriver, before heading back towards the Crescent City. Chrissy and I wandered aft so that we could take pictures of the paddlewheel that powered the steamboat. We also went through the gift shop and into the dining room to try and hear some jazz, but they only had a piano player.
Once we docked, we got beignets at Cafe du Monde and I bought a shirt at the Harley Davidson store before we decided to walk up Decatur Street to Frenchman Street in order to relax in Washington Square. We sprawled out in the grass so that we could relax after our long day. There happened to be a group of people doing yoga/practicing for their own mini version of Cirque du Soleil. I also enjoyed watching two dogs play fetch whilst being the supportive/corrupting friend that I am by having Chrissy start pondering her next tattoo seriously since we wandered past a tattoo shop on our way to Washington Square. On our way back to the hotel, we did make inquiries at the tattoo shop before making our way back through the French Quarter to the Ambassador Hotel. For dinner, we chose to eat at the Extreme Sports Bar and Grille that was next to our hotel. I settled for a burger and fries for fuel before we headed back out in search of some decent jazz on Frenchman Street.
After a bit of wandering, we chose to enter The Spotted Cat, which was definitely a great decision. Not only was the music amazing, but there were a handful of individuals who were dressed in 1920s garb and swing dancing like there was no tomorrow. I was so glad that we could finally witness some excellent jazz in the city where that style of music was born. Once we left The Spotted Cat, we walked down Bourbon Street before cutting across the French Quarter to sit by the river. Unfortunately some security officers kicked us off of the steps of the riverwalk, so we chose to just go back to the hotel to get some sleep.
On our last morning, we packed up our belongings and ate some cereal in the room for breakfast. We checked out and went to the Riverwalk Marketplace to do some last minute shopping. On our walk there, we saw a bunch of women decked out in purple shirts and red hats. This didn't come as a surprise to us considering every day we happened to run into a large group of these women almost everywhere we went. Apparently the Red Hat Society was having a convention in the Big Easy, which I found entertaining. Following our shopping, we opted for some free wine tasting at the NOLA Tropical Winery. The wine was made from blueberries, strawberries, mangos, oranges, and coffee. The woman who worked at the winery was very entertaining and kept giving us a wide variety of wines to taste. In order to avoid an early morning buzz at 10:30am, we hotfooted it to Pinkberry in order to fill up on frozen yogurt. We then decided to walk down Canal Street in order to loop up to Bourbon Street so that we could continue shopping. After about an hour, we made our way towards Cafe du Monde for some frozen cafe au lait and beignets. Along the way we stopped to watch and take pictures of some street performers. Unfortunately, we happened to come across a very aggressive street performer who started following me and demanding a tip because I had taken pictures. After escaping that situation, we were able to relax at Cafe du Monde, browse some more shops, and lay out in Jackson Square before fetching a cab on Toulouse Street. Our cabbie was quite entertaining as we listened to him give a friend relationship advice on the phone. We checked in and made it through security so that we could lounge at our gate for 2 hours. We then boarded our plane on time, but due to horrendous weather in New York City, we were grounded on the tarmac for two hours. Luckily they handed out snacks and beverages and we soon got cleared for takeoff. We landed at JFK at 12:15am and met up with Oliver who was kind enough to drive us home to East Stroudsburg. Now it's back to reality and the frantic job search continues.