RunAcrossTheUSA.com

[Matt]

Here is another installment of my coveted "top ten" lists (not that anyone's done a top ten list before). We found out yesterday that there are a lot more things on the side of the interstate than on a regular highway. This is probably because there is a lot more traffic and people can't just turn around on the interstate and get something that flies out the window or out of the back of a pick-up truck.

Yesterday was an interesting day all around, especially my almost incarceration for a domestic dispute with Matt, a woman. I think the real crime would have been why I was chasing such an ugly woman.

Here's the top ten list of things we have found on the side of the road.

1. License plates. This tops the list because it has become one of our hobbies to collect license plates from the different states. We have found at least one in every state we've gone through. We haven't had to resort to taking a screwdriver to a parked car, so all of our license plates were already separated from the cars they belonged to and abandoned.

2. Wallets. This has only happened a couple of times, and only once was there anything in the wallet. As we went through the high tourist traffic area around Mt. Rushmore, we found a wallet of an 8th grader from Pennsylvania. Although there was no address in wallet, we have a name and a school, so hopefully we can get his wallet back to him.

3. Action Figures. As we walk down the road, bored out of our minds, nothing cheers me up more than finding some toy, particularly with moving parts and some sort of action move. We found a little Spiderman figure with a little rope around its neck and immediately tied him to the stroller handlebar. He has been with us ever since.

4. Furniture. The most notable piece of furniture was a recliner lying upside down in a ditch. I went down, dragged it up to the road, and proceeded to relax for a few minutes in luxury as I ate oatmeal and saltine crackers.


5. A sledge hammer. We found this the first week of our journey in the middle of a thunderstorm. We started singing rainy songs to make ourselves less miserable and I glanced down and there was a sledge hammer. This became my marching baton and people passing in cars must have been confused to see this guy in a black jacket with hot pink stripes singing at the top of his lungs and carrying a sledge hammer.

6. Electronic equipment. Yesterday I found a pretty expensive camera still in its case. However, it was no longer operational because it had apparently been run over a few times and was cracked into a million pieces.

7. A truckers antenna. This fits perfectly into the flag slots that are on the stroller, so it seems only logical that we try to get better reception by installing an antenna.

8. A prophetic stick. This finely painted stick was apparently a gift or love offering from someone named Matthew to someone named Breana. The simple words "Matthew loves Breana" and "Breana loves Matthew" speak of a deep love that, as long as the stick remains in existence, will forever last. We weren't sure of the purpose of the stick, whether it was just decoration or for corporal discipline, but if Matt ever meets someone named Breana, it's sure to be love at first sight. Sticks don't lie.

9. Clothes. This ranges from baby shoes to baseball caps to underwear. People must just feel some urge to throw their clothes out the window of their car. So far we haven't found anything worth picking or wearing ourselves, but we alway on the lookout for free clothes.

10. Money. Quarters, dimes, pennies, half of a twenty dollar bill--we could become rich walking down highways and picking up money. Sometimes we weigh the cost of leaning down to pick it up (ouch) and decide if the money is really worth it.

There it is. Enjoy.

Brandon