Sorry for waiting a couple days to update the blog. I want to thank all of you who were a part of this project, whether it was following along or if you were one of the dozens of people who helped make this possible. It was quite an experience to be immersed for seven days and suddenly find myself having to engage with people on a face-to-face basis and without the advantage of the delay of an Internet conversation. Someone asked me what I learned from this experience, and I think the most important thing is the ideas for my next work. The video of the performance is being edited, and I will be posting that as soon as it’s finished. Look for that in a few days! We’ve got images of the show up on the Facebook page, and you can see them here. Thank you all again, and I’ll be keeping you all updated and informed about my next project!

Our first stop on Day 6 was in Pendleton, Oregon, which we’re told is known for its prison system and rodeo events. (No word on if there’s a prison rodeo, but I’d be disappointed to discover there wasn’t one.) Pendleton is where we found the Cattle Drive Sculpture Park.

Our next leg took us to another Stonehenge replica, this one in Maryhill, Washington. It’s dedicated to soldiers from Washington’s Klickitat County who lost their lives in war, so we thought it was a fitting place to stop.

From there we scooched on over to the Historic Columbia River Highway, where we saw Horsetail Falls as well as Vista House. It was a breathtaking drive, although a bit treacherous due to the narrow, winding road and inclines. It didn’t help that we were almost out of gas and worried about how Jordan might be doing on the crazy road. Once we got back on I84, though, it was smooth sailing.

We’re currently parked at Rocksbox Contemporary Fine Art, where we’ve spent the day going over technical details related to tonight’s performance. If you’re in Portland, we’d love to have you join us tonight at Fourteen30 Contemporary‘s satellite space (937 NW Glisan). If you can’t make it, please join us on the live blog.

Daily Stats (at the time of this posting)

In Crate: 130 hours
In Game: 93 hours
Food Consumed: 20 protein bars
Water Consumption: 3/4 of total supply of 4 gallons
Hours of Exercise: 6 hours
Hours of Sleep: 26 hours
Computer Parts Lost: 1 fan blade

In addition, Shane and I have clocked 2530.6 miles of travel total.

We’ll leave you with this image, which is the last “urine level” shot we took.

We’re in Oregon now, and it’s lovely. Also? Still not much to report. Our first planned “roadside attraction” stop of the day is still a few miles down the road.

We don’t shut off the van unless it’s absolutely necessary, since that would mean Jordan would lose power to his computer system; essentially, that means we turn it off when we gas up first thing in the morning and when we park for the night. But you have no idea how difficult it is to remember NOT to turn off the vehicle. It’s second nature: you pull to a stop, you put your car in park, and you switch off the ignition. Shane and I therefore spend an inordinate amount of time reminding each other to leave the van running. We’re proud to say we’ve accidentally shut it off without thinking only once.

Having to leave the van running even when we’re not in it presents its own challenges. We’ve eaten all our meals during travel time in the vehicle except for lunch on an outdoor patio with a view of the van in Rawlins, Wyoming, because we’re just not comfortable leaving it running for more than a few minutes if we can’t see it. Our bathroom/stretch breaks are usually no more than five or six minutes. I think the longest we left the van running and unattended was during a 15-minute visit to a Best Buy to replace a digital camera cable we lost along the way.

We do have a little more freedom once we park for the night. Before we can shut off the van we have to switch everything over from running off the car battery (and through an inverter) to running through extension cords into regular outlets because there’s confusion with Jordan’s battery packs and the inverter; thus, we aren’t able to leave the van off without the potential for losing power. This whole process probably looks pretty hilarious to anyone who’s watching from the outside. I’m 4’11″ and can actually stand straight up in the van, so a lot of my job involves climbing over seats and wedging myself between the crate and the sides of the van. (Also, I’m 37 and therefore way too old to be doing this shit.) Shane, on the other hand, is 6’3″. Unfortunately, he’s the one who actually knows how to hook up everything, so he’s put in odd positions, too. I’m sure we look like a modern day Laurel and Hardy.

The hardest part of the trip so far has been finding appropriate lodging when we’re not staying with friends. Because we have to be able to plug into an outlet, we have to stay in motels with exterior entrances. And, of course, I have to explain to the desk clerk that we’ll be plugging stuff in and offer to pay for the extra electricity usage. (That’s how we end up staying at places like the Cabana Inn.)

That’s been a challenge, too, because I don’t want to flat-out lie about why we’re plugging in stuff, but I don’t want to give the motel staff any reason to be suspicious. I’ve thus learned to be appropriately evasive. Essentially, I say that we’re transporting items for an art exhibit from Arkansas to Oregon, explaining that the cargo is temperature-sensitive and therefore needs an extra power supply to prevent major fluctuations. Surprisingly, no one has demanded more of an explanation.

Our other major concern is that leaving the van running (but locked) when we’re taking a bathroom break (or with the cords running out of it into an outlet at night) while a huge, hard-to-miss museum crate is in the back might be a little too enticing to people who aren’t on the up-and-up. Shane and I are on pins and needles the whole time we’re not in the van, the idea that someone could break in and make off with the van always in the back of our minds. We drive as carefully as possible, but anyone who stole the van wouldn’t know about the exact nature of the, um, “precious cargo” in the back. So not only is there the potential for Jordan to be, well, stolen, but there’s also the chance he could be severely injured. The only upside is that any bastard who did that would be charged with grand theft auto as well as, we assume, kidnapping.

Then again, who knows in what kind of trouble Shane and I might find ourselves if we reported that someone stole a van in which we had locked a guy in a box and driven him across the country?

Daily Stats (July 5)

In Crate: 106 hours
In Game: 73 hours
Food Consumed: 16 protein bars
Water Consumption: 1/2 of total supply of 4 gallons
Hours of Exercise: 4 hours
Hours of Sleep: 24 hours
Computer Parts Lost: 1 fan blade

In addition, Shane and I have clocked 2075.1 miles of travel total.

(Note: There was no mid-day update today because, quite frankly, there was nothing of note to report. Suffice it to say there’s not much going on in Idaho right now.)

In the afternoon we stopped by Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho, where Evel Knievel tried (and failed spectacularly) to jump the formation with–get this–a “rocket motorcycle.” There was no way Shane and I weren’t stopping there. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get a great shot showcasing the gorgeousness of the gorge and the van together, but you can get the gist.

Since that was the only stop we had planned for today, we decided to forge onward and ended up stopping in Boise. There’s not much to report from here either, other than that it’s much hotter than we expected. And on a completely out-there note, we haven’t seen a single potato. Disappointing!

To make up for today’s lack of reporting, we have another video from Jordan.

We had a lovely night in a suburb of Salt Lake City. Although technically the temperature was about the same as it is right now in Arkansas, the fact that it’s so arid was completely outside of our experience. We’re accustomed to incredible humidity that makes the heat index rise considerably, so the dry heat was…weird but welcome. We hope that means Jordan was (relatively) comfortable.

It was also interesting that except for the mountains in the distance, everything was so flat because we were in the valley. Because of that, from our vantage point we could see displays from six different fireworks shows sitting in our host’s backyard. Matt Glass, our host, took some incredible photos, including the one here. Matt climbed up on the roof and caught this spectacular shot with a bird’s eye view of the fireworks and the van in which Jordan’s crate sits. Matt is also putting together some of the video Shane and I shot along the way as well as some that he took last night.

This morning when we left, we stopped by Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah, to see some of the planes on display at the small museum there. What we didn’t factor in was that a military base has a security check point with armed guards at the gated entrance. Let me tell you what you don’t want to do: Try to enter a military base that has a security check point with armed guards at the gated entrance when you’re driving an unmarked van with tinted windows and out-of-state plates that has a full-grown man locked inside a crate in the back. Shane wisened up just before we tried to enter the base, which is why I’m updating from the road instead of in, oh, say, a stockade or something.

Today is the least-demanding day for the transport crew. We have only one planned stop on our itinerary, and we’re looking forward to taking it easy and not having to hit several sites along the way. Let us know how Jordan’s doing if you interact with him in the game.

Daily Stats (July 4)

In Crate: 82 hours
In Game: 52 hours
Food Consumed: 12 protein bars
Water Consumption: 1/2 of total supply of 4 gallons
Hours of Exercise: 4 hours
Hours of Sleep: 21 hours
Computer Parts Lost: 1 fan blade

In addition, Shane and I have clocked 1741.7 miles of travel total.

We made it over the Utah border and found our final destination for the day just outside of Salt Lake City where we’re staying with a friend (Matt Glass) who attends Cranbrook, the art school from which Jordan just graduated.

After finding Matt’s house, he jumped in the van with us and we had dinner before driving out to Antelope Island State Park on the Great Salt Lake. Matt shot some video and also collected the video Shane and I have been shooting along the way, so we hope to have more visual elements for you soon.

It’s been another long day, so Shane and I are going to try to catch some fireworks displays from a comfy spot in Matt’s backyard before hitting the hay. If you play LoTRO, try to find Jordan (Adanwings); I understand he “bought” fireworks in the game. (Or something like that. Shane and I REALLY don’t understand anything about gaming.)

Tomorrow we head to Idaho. We’re saving all our potato jokes for then.

Shane and I stopped by the historic Wyoming State Penitentiary, which is now defunct and serves as a museum, in Rawlins in the early afternoon.

Afterwards we grabbed a quick lunch and decided to eat on the outdoor patio. We’ve wondered if Jordan could smell our food when we ate and if it made him hungry (and perhaps bitter about his protein bars), so it seemed like the nice thing to do since it was so pretty and temperate and we could easily keep an eye on the van. When we got back in the van, we determined almost immediately that Jordan CAN smell our food, since we were pretty sure we could smell his poop. I don’t know for sure if he did poop (or even if it was his first of the trip), but it was definitely the first time we’ve smelled anything from the crate.

After leaving Rawlins we ran into a wall of rain as well as the Continental Divide. It wasn’t a terrible thunderstorm like we experienced outside Kansas City yesterday, but it was accompanied by incredibly strong winds. Between that and the fact that I haven’t been able to get online anywhere along I80 since entering Wyoming unless we used the free wifi at a travel plaza, I’m going to guess Jordan hasn’t been online for the bulk of the day.

Our next stop was in Little America, Wyoming. Actually, I’m not even sure if Little America is a town, as all I saw was the stuff associated with the complex. Little America bills itself as the World’s Largest Gas Station; whether that’s true or not I don’t kow, but it had tons of stuff (filling stations, gift shop, sit-down restaurant, playground, food court-type offerings, etc.).

We have about 150 miles left on our itinerary for the day. We plan to stop in Salt Lake City for the night and possibly part of tomorrow before getting back on track toward Portland. I know Jordan said he (Adanwings) already bought fireworks for the evening in game, so Shane and I will have to find a way to amuse ourselves this holiday.

Update: Man, are our faces red. Yesterday Shane and I wondered what was plugged into the cigarette lighter, but we couldn’t figure it out. Today we asked Jordan and Shane’s dad, and he said it was the signal booster. Doh! We had no idea. I’m sure Jordan will have something to say about that when he’s out of the crate.

We have virtually nothing to report this morning. We departed Alliance headed west through the rest of Nebraska and most of Wyoming. The landscape changed dramatically over the last couple hours; it’s much more hilly and has a few bluffs and outcroppings in the distance. Also, the wind is incredible. Sometimes it buffets the van around a bit, so I hope we’re not jostling Jordan around too much. But it’s still very isolated with little population pockets dotting the terrain.

No, seriously. Very isolated and with very small population pockets–sometimes as small as just one person in the whole town. That’s the population of Jordan’s crate!

I don’t know what kind of Internet access Jordan has had thus far today. I didn’t even attempt to get a mobile hotspot signal until we hit I80, but when I did it pulled right up. Maybe Jordan was able to play a little this morning. (Assuming he wasn’t asleep, anyway.)

Temperatures are great today (around 86F at the time of this writing), but we’re ultimately heading southwest today and expect temps to reach the low- to mid-90s. We had much higher temperatures (especially with the heat index factored in) in Arkansas and Missouri, so I’m not so worried about how hot it is in the box today.

Daily Stats (July 3)

In Crate: 61 hours
In Game: 25 hours
Food Consumed: 8 protein bars
Water Consumption: 1/3 of total supply of 4 gallons
Hours of Exercise: 3 hours
Hours of Sleep: 15 hours
Computer Parts Lost: 1 fan blade

In addition, Shane and I have clocked 1130.4 miles of travel total.

The second half of the day was lovely: clear skies, open road and no ominous rain or wind. It was also…monotonous. Never let it be said that Nebraska doesn’t like its corn. The state is beautiful–especially this time of year–with its green corn fields, wide open spaces and blue sky. It’s also miles and miles and miles of virtually nothing, so our Internet access was again intermittent while on the road.

At the end of the day we rolled into Alliance, Nebraska, which is home to Carhenge. Shane and I have wanted to go to Carhenge FOREVER, but we have no idea how Jordan feels about it. Doesn’t matter; he won’t know he was there until he reads this.

Less than two miles from Carhenge we discovered the greatest oddity we’ve seen yet on the trip. I don’t know how else to describe it, but a small spray-painted sign designated it as a “rest area.” It was pretty hilarious to us, because this essentially has what Jordan has in the crate: waste disposal, something of an “easy chair,” and Internet access. It was pretty hot (92F) when we were at this particular site, so I guess it’s debatable as to who was the most comfortable: Jordan or us.

Also, Jordan’s created his first “in the box” video, which you can view here.