Alex Across America

Home Sweet Home

2010-08-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

I am currently on an airplane back to Virginia. I didn’t want to blog about this earlier, because my sister has no idea that I am coming home. I left George early Wednesday morning with my grandparents. It was time for me to leave. I am very grateful for this trip. It was definitely an adventure. And it was also very exhausting. I am glad to be going home. I am surprising my sister. I don’t think she has any idea that I am on an airplane right now. I woke up early this morning. And do I mean early! 4:30. That was insane. I NEVER want to wake up that early again. So I will not be going back to work any time soon. Nor will I be going back to church until I am out of the coma I will be in starting in Chesapeake.
Will I miss being on the road? No. I will not miss the people I would have met. I hated meeting so many Gold Star Families. It hurt my heart. But, I am glad that I met some of the people. They really are the greatest people on earth. I was very nervous about getting on the plane. Not because we could crash on some island and find smoke monsters and other people on a “remote” island. But because of Anastasia Zoe. She is underneath my feet in her road case. The only thing that comforts me about this is spending the 100$ for that amazing case. Honestly, when I bought the guitar, and the only case that would fit the body style was also the most expensive? Was very hard to spend. But, I did and I don’t regret it, other than it being big and bulky. I did not want to hand over my guitar to the TSA agent. But I did because it was easier than having it checked at the gate. Speaking of TSA agents. I was going through security this morning and they searched my bag. I had left my favorite Knife in it. I didn’t know this. I thought I had lost it in one of the host homes. Nope. It was in my personal bag. So now the TSA agent has a very nice knife with spring “assist” opening. Lucky.

Whats going on Alex?

2010-07-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

So much stuff is actually going on. I am in the midst of preparing for an even bigger journey. I can't say anything about it, but just know that it is big! Ok, so thats whats going on. I am thinking about discontinuing the blogs. But, its is kind of nice to write. The RV is a mess inside and out. I really would like a nice place to live, but I kind of hate cleaning. Thats not true. I loath cleaning... Thats better. Anyway, it definitely needs to be cleaned. My sister called me last week with the most exciting and devastating news thus far, she got the lead in "The Wiz" thus making me realize that I will not make it to the play. Or Will I?
I am going to Minnesota on Wednesday. I am excited to see some relatives, its been a while. So we have to wash the RV today. Its dirty. The windshield must be specially made to attract all of the bugs to it. We need an oil change too. It seems like we did that 3 weeks ago, oh we did. Oil changes are never such a pain in the rear until you have to do them every 5,000 miles. And when you are driving 5,000 miles in 3 weeks, then it is a pain in the rear. And just when you get the engine clean, you still have 34 feet of cleanliness to look forward to.

I love my girl...

2010-07-12T20:44:00.001-07:00

I really do love her. Her name is Anastasia Zoe. Beautiful name. It means Resurrection Life. Not only does she have a beautiful name, but she also is beautiful, and has a beautiful voice. All around beautiful. I love playing my guitar. I missed her for the first 3 weeks of this trip. But I got her back! I am happy. Very happy. OK, so I have been thinking. I am wavering between starting my vlogs back up or just not worrying about it. If I could stop procrastinating, maybe I could actually edit and upload them! Wow! But seriously if I start them back up, I will probably contact a daily vlogger I watch and ask him a couple questions. I really want to do it, its just hard to whip out a camera, point it to your face, and start talking to it. Its a little awkward. OK, anyway. I didn't do a whole lot of anything this weekend, except eat allot of candy. I like candy. I didn't even go to church. Since when did going to church every weekend become so important? I'm pretty sure the big man upstairs doesn't care if you go to church every week or not. I'm certain He's not up there keeping score on how often we pray or go to church. What if we are constantly "late" for church? I understand, I am sometimes "late" on "accident" to church. I know why, I just dont really want to listen to another American Idol wannabe sing. What if you dont like the persons voice? Does that make you a bad person? OK. Jesus loves them. And I do too! Just not enough to listen to them EVERY sunday. I'm not making a jab at anyone in particular, just noticing things about churches around the country! Its a Phenomenon! Really! I really like going to church, and I really like not going to church! No seriously, do I have a problem? I am really enjoying going to churches, and seeing the SAME people. Honestly, I can pick out people I am friends with at OTHER churches! Its insane! Am I just another one of those names for people as well? Just some thoughts. Have YOU ever been to a different church, and noticed things in that church that are the same as yours?

Getting Pink Slips

2010-07-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Last Night we stayed with a guy from Fort Campbell in TN, Very nice guy. He is in the Army, 101st Airborne. George, Him, and I visited a memorial in the base. One of Georges friends son is on a memorial there, his son was from TN but he lives in FL, the man started the “Lest they be Forgotten” flag, his mission is to build memorials in every passed soldier’s hometown. We saw one of his memorials in Michigan, The memorial is basically a soldiers cross with the name of the soldier it is honoring. After we saw the memorial on base, we went to an American Legion post and saw one of his “lest they be Forgotten” flag on the wall of the post.
We went out to dinner at Olive Garden with our host, Shane and his buddy. We shared stories, and both of the guys shared about their experience in the Army. They shared about riding motorcycles on their Combat Vets association. They had cool stories to tell about speeding tickets. Our server at Olive Garden was a Vet. He shared stories with us too. And shared about his 125 in a 45 speeding ticket. He was supposed to be on probation for 4 year for the ticket. But after speaking to his Parole Officer and getting that news, enlisted into the Marines. And started with a clean slate. So, this entire trip, have seen allot of motorcycles right? Allot of bikes. So, when I get home, I am going to get a bike. So much cheaper than cars. Insurance wise, gas wise, and price wise. I probably wont buy a Harley. Those are a little expensive, and I am not going into debt... EVER... So, I need to save up for a modest one. But that is a little hard being on the road essentially unemployed. I still get my job back when I come home.... But, I kinda like not going to work. I won’t get a bike until I take the class and get my license. Oh, and I wont go 125 in a 45.

Mmm... Bacon...

2010-07-10T07:51:00.001-07:00

We have been on the road for over a month, and I should have over a month worth of posts here. We were in Indianapolis for two days, what a big city. These people love the colts. I like the Colts they are a great team... But really my team is Minnesota, I know, a crazy team to root for, but what can I say I like Favre. OK, anyway. We were in Indy for two days. When we got there we thought we were going to be staying in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We stayed in a Wal-Mart parking lot for one night. That sucked, I cannot sleep with any light. It is extremely hard for me to fall asleep. I need it almost pitch black. We didn’t end up staying in a parking lot that night. But a missionary outreach apartment. What a tremendous blessing, I was on a couch, but still this place was better than our norm. I had a pretty fast internet connection too! So that was a huge blessing. I saw a movie called “Taking Chance” its an HBO movie, but it has Kevin Bacon in it... Mmmm bacon. That just happened. Why do I feel like I have more of a personality in my blogs rather than my vlogs?

What would happen if we couldn't blink?

2010-07-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

Now, I'm sure that the creator of the heavens would have made it possible for us to not have to blink, but what if we only had 1,000,000,000 blinks in a life time? Did I pass that already? Because usually when I blink, I blink twice. Why? I wear contacts. They sting is I don't take them out in time. Ouch. But honestly, what is we only had a certain number of blinks? Would we cry all the time? That would be awkward. We could be walking through wal-mart trying not to shed a tear, but, it comes anyway with no way to stop it. I suppose that our eyes would eventually be bloodshot, and we would go blind. But I'm glad that I can blink as many times as need be. To relieve the stinging in my eyes. This has been deep thoughts with Alex Rohr.

Reducing Myself

2010-07-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, This is a short rant. But, if you read my blog, you comment on my blog. I wont write if you don't comment, if you don't comment, I dont graduate. So there, now you are absolutely obligated to comment. I hope you are ashamed of your self. You are making me fail. Therefore, you fail.... I can't even write about you anymore. So, I think I am quitting the vlogs, Why? Because. I am boring! The Vloggers I watch are either married with adorable children, or attractive young men (such as myself) with a Fiance', Disgusting.
So since I am the only character in my vlogs. I am quitting until I am either Married with adorable spawn, or engaged to a beautiful girl. There, I said it. I quit. Insert funny quote here " I would check into rehab, but I'm no quitter."
So, now that I am quitting, I still have unwatched videos to be uploaded. I will upload those in time. And If I am somewhere that needs to be captured, I will capture it and upload it. Perhaps I will start a separate channel for more "creative" or stuff I wrote. Yes I wrote "stuff" how unprofessional of me. out.

A bad trip...

2010-07-01T22:58:00.000-07:00

Yall', I did it again. I found the bad drug called caffeine again today. I know, I never learn. 1:42 AM no sleep. I should have known better that the 8 glasses of iced tea tonight, beginning with the 2 glasses at lunch and 2 glasses of Dr.Pepper at lunch would keep me up. Nope. I was beginning to wonder why the heck I was still awake at 1 and just remembered that I am actually up at 1:30 just now knowing that sleep will be a figment of my imagination. Crap. I can feel my heart pumping this caffeine through my veins into every muscle and my eyes shifting from one place to another. Did I mention the twitching that is involved with all of this? The occasional bicep twitch, glute twitch, and the all time favorite Calf twitch. Pump, Pump, Pump this caffeine through my veins. Try to sleep? I Tried to sleep with no avail. I cleaned up my clothes and was going to put them in the RV, but decided not to make everyone else suffer my caffeine trip. Iced Tea. Did I ever mention that I was in Ohio?
This essentially means that they do not sweeten their tea.... Above the mason dixon line, there is a code of Honor for tea. no sweetener. I know people that ADD sweetener to their sweet tea. Here, they give you like five packets which is barely enough to make water. I am not a huge fan of the Sweet tea thing, but sometimes, I can enjoy a glass or two of southern SWEET tea. But, one thing they give you with your tea is lemons. and allot of lemons. For my eight or more glasses of tea, I had five lemons in my glass when it was all said and done until the waitress got wise and just filled my glass up with the pitcher and didn't add any more lemon. Did you know that refrigerated tea tastes different than non? I didn't until now. So, now that I won't be sleeping tonight... I will just read?

The Creative writing program

2010-07-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

FUUUUDGE!!! I just deleted more than ten sentences... I am starting to hate computers. Allot. Two wrong entries of certain keys, and tada, your post is gone. Wow. The RV is in the shop. It needs new brakes and some other stuff. I have a feeling that whomever "looked" at the RV was either drunk, or wanted us to die. I'm still working on my conspiracy theory so please don't judge. For those of you who keep up with my Vlogs, and or are subscribed to me. I am thinking of Starting another channel for the Vlogs, I got tired of how Alexthepirate and vlogs worked together. So if you would. Comment on this post with a new channel name. I will still keep the Alexthepirate9 channel for more creative things... Maybe, shorts? But that is still up in the air. Let me know! its really hard to keep up with them, so don't be mad if they are late. Peace.

Go RVing

2010-06-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

No, this is not subliminal advertising... Unless of course the Go RVing guys wanna pay me. Im open to that! I am currently sitting in our new form of transportation on Sprints (subliminal advertising) 4G HotSpot. Awesome. I am trying to pay attention to the road and this blog. This is both awesome and terrifying. I thing once we get used to the RV, I will not have to pay attention to the road. We may not have a place to sleep in here just yet. But we have all this stuff in the hallway and on the beds. We will get this all set. Pray for our journey!

William Penn

2010-06-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

Who is William Penn? Hopefully Mrs.B my history teacher doesn't read my blog... That could be problematic. So, I'm sitting in a cute little home outside of the capitol of Pennsylvania. Yeah, I cant remember the name of the place. But, there is no A/C in this house... Umm... yeah this is 2010! They have A/c in Alaska... Don't quote me... There was an event this afternoon, but dude! We traveled for 4 hours BACK to this house. Why? Because there was an event. I know they say its not the destination, but I'm pretty sure whoever THEY are, but I'm sure they never sat in a car for four hours. Thats the worst part of traveling. But I sleep in the car now. No, I'm serious... I sleep IN the car. I haven't been able to sleep in the car for years! Its pretty nice... Yawn, I'm tired. And I have to get my sleep for Hershey Park tomorrow... Jealous much?

Posting Blogs make alex a dull boy

2010-06-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

I have got to get into gear here in my blogs and also my vlogs. Its pretty hard to be faithful to it, I'm not going to lie. Today has been pretty uneventful. We left our host Home in Camden, NY. We had an amazing night last night. Met many Gold Star families. I was talking to a Gold Star dad last night and just mentioned that the Gold Star Families are the greatest people in the world. But, I wish I didn't meet them, I would have never met them if their son or daughter wasn't killed. I do really like them. But, being a GSF (Gold Star Family) member is the club nobody wants to be a part of. Does that make any sense?
I went to a Cemetery earlier today, and almost cried. I hate seeing these names on marble and granite. Hate it so much. Such a sad thing to see people die before their time. God does have his plans. But, I would never want to experience the grief of losing a child or spouse. Incredible sacrifice, incredible courage and strength. Goodnight.

New York Citay!!

2010-06-15T19:24:00.003-07:00

New York City... Yes... The big event!! The only two things that bothered me were, Waking up at 3 AM and leaving New York that afternoon. But other than those terrible things. I loved New York. LOVED! I only wish that I would have found a feather there. This whole feather thing is kind of interesting. For those of you who care... I was told that some where along this trip I would find a feather for my destination as home. Basically where I would make a living and start a family. Well, you would think that it would be easy to find a feather within 5 states... Not so much... New York city has to have one with all those nasty pigeons. Nope... Crap... I really liked New York... Err... Loved... New York... I want to cry just thinking about that amazing city... There are almost no words to describe the city... Beautiful. I’m a sucker for large masses of people, and... BROADWAY!!! My favorite place of New York. Yeah, I went to a three story McDonalds. That was neat. The City was unfathomably large. Like I said, few words to describe what happened. I feel like I just lost half of my readers for just this one post. Its a little A.D.D. So that makes one reader... Me...

NEW!!! Jersey

2010-06-15T19:24:00.001-07:00

I should just transcribe my vlogs onto here. But actually... I haven’t been too good with those either. I’m sitting in a car trying to recall the last days events, Just to do an update thats worth...Something... New Jersey was amazing. The host home was incredible. We had an event the night we arrived in New Jersey, it was really cool. We had a police and Rolling Thunder escort to the event for a good 15 miles... Running through red lights and blowing past all traffic. Really cool experience and really cool people.
And the next day we went to the state capitol...Capital... Capitol... What is the correct spelling of it anyway? I’ve seen it both ways... Anyway, we had a motorcycle escort for that as well... But, we couldn’t blow through the stop lights... The day in Trenton was pretty cool. But the best part of the day was going to a gold star Vietnam family. This couple, was still together, one of the first gold star families that were together. They lost their son in Vietnam. He was 19, he turned 19 the month before he died. He enlisted as a marine. Wasn’t drafted. But really wanted to be a marine. We were showing the couple the regular flag, and telling them a little about it. The father was impressed. He asked where he could get a flag like it. This couple had no idea that they were going to be getting a flag. Well it just so happens that we had a flag for them. With their sons name on it. Both of them started crying. And the father said, “After 40 years somebody still remembers my son.” I love and hate hearing that. I hate that People die, but I love the honor we are giving the family.

Towson, Maryland

2010-06-13T20:33:00.001-07:00

We were in Towson, Maryland for a night. The day we got into Towson we had a flag presentation for a Sweet older lady, who’s son died in Vietnam, and another flag presentation for a couple who lost their son in Iraq. We are trying to broaden the horizon with these presentations as far as generations for losses. These people are amazing. The hearts of these people are so humble and beautiful. I don’t know how many hugs I received during this short time. I love it, and wouldn’t trade this opportunity for anything. Later that night we were invited to a BBQ in a little town called Lisbon, Maryland. This place was amazing. I was astonished by the people in this community and how closely they were knit together, it was like a big family reunion. But, These people had love. I really wanted to spend a week there with them, but, the road called me on.
The next day we went to Annapolis, MD to go to the Naval Academy, to take a tour. Wow, what history and legacy for my generation to inherit. It was amazing to watch these families be honored. And I cant wait to go to the next towns.

Dover, Delaware

2010-06-12T05:05:00.001-07:00

We started the day off from Chesapeake, VA. We left around 6 AM. And started our five month journey across the U.S. To all fifty states. We left for Dover, DE, for Dover Air Force Base, where our fallen heroes come home. We met with three service men and talked about our vision for Honor and Remember. They received it very well, and were very impressed with the design of the flag. We then took a tour of their beautiful facility, where they receive the families of fallen heroes. All together a productive day in Dover AFB.
Later that day we presented a couple of flags to Gold Star Families. One to a family who lost their son in Iraq and another Woman who lost her brother in Vietnam. Needless to say, these flag presentations are very emotional.
The next day, we went to the State Capitol of Delaware, Dover. And tried to meet with the Governor to teach him about the flag. He wasn’t there, but we did meet the Chief of staff. I’m not exactly sure of what these titles mean. I’m sure I will learn in Gov’t.
We met a few senators in the capitol and had them sign our legislative pledge. Again, I don’t claim to know what these terms mean. That morning, we were also in the Delaware state newspaper. But all in all we were astounded at the response from Delaware. `

2010-06-10T14:22:00.003-07:00

(2/2) trip is so emmotional. I will update from previous days when i have an internet connection.

2010-06-10T14:22:00.001-07:00

(1/2) Just going to our host house. We just got on the road from a flag presentation for a vietnam family from the marines. The parents were so touched. This

2010-06-10T14:12:00.003-07:00

(2/2) will actually blog later!

2010-06-10T14:12:00.001-07:00

(1/2) I am at a war memorial with george and a gold star mother. What a great trip this has been so far. I cannot wait for tomorrow we are going to new york! I

I'M FREE!!...almost

2010-06-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

Second day of my vlogging adventure. I am currently 2 days behind on the uploads I will be working with the editing tomorrow.

So, I guess this is my first post. I am leaving for the big ol' trip tomorrow at 5:30 AM, I am pretty sure that Jesus doesn't get up that early.

There, I am done... enough with packing... Ah, procrastination gotta love it. So just a quick little blog to get me started! I will write tomorrow!