This is the last episode of Travis' Travels ever. It has been a distinct pleasure and an honor to serve as your blogger for the past six months.

The following travel begins in the summer of 2006.

Summer 2006

Our car was traveling east on 322.

I was in the back seat -- driving was our future copy desk assistant, Kelsey Maxin, and riding shotgun was The Centre Daily Times' future star reporter, Sara Ganim.

We were returning to State College from the home of our night systems supervisor, a man named Tom Owens.

In case you haven't heard of Tom, here are ten fun facts about him:

1. He makes sure our newspaper gets printed every night.
2. He wrestled a bear.
3. He went horseback riding with Mike Huckabee and CIA agents.
4. He writes screenplays.
5. He plays racquetball with local celebrities.
6. He has seven children.
7. He has, according to his Collegian bio, been involved in the publishing industry as an "illustrator, reporter, photographer, columnist, designer, editor and finally, owner."
8. He has a tattoo of "T O." He insists that these are his initials and not just "TOM" without the "M."
9. He can breathe underwater.
10. He also designs greeting cards.

Tom is such a nice guy that he has a cookout for all of us Collegian staffers every semester. Our stomachs full with delicious burgers and chicken sandwiches, Kelsey and Sara and I took off to make it to the summer semi-formal. That year it was hosted by Kayur Patel, who is best known for playing the lovable misfit candidate reporter in Aaron Matthews' documentary "The Paper," which I'm sure you caught when it aired on PBS at 10 p.m. Tuesday.

It was dark out, and we didn't quite know where we were going. And after about a half an hour, we came to the realization that we were not heading in the direction of State College -- we were going toward Harrisburg.

The gas gauge was nearing empty. Kelsey managed to turn us around -- we drove by a gas station, but it was closed. As we started heading west, Sara and I made up stories about night drivers who turn off their headlights and follow cars through the darkness, pushing them off the road and stealing their stuff.

Eventually we came across a gas station that was closed, but we begged the attendant to let us pump a bit of gas. She reluctantly agreed, and we made it to the semi- formal a scant hour late.

Things sometimes have a funny way of coming full circle.

About a month ago, I received an e-mail from someone connected with Jarcy's Motel, the first destination of Travis' Travels, detailing the history of how a once-proud establishment devolved into what I had described as worse than "The Crappiest Motel In The World." I'm not going to go into it because it's pretty depressing, but it was interesting to finally get an answer after all that time of wondering.

Another example: Three and a half years ago, I was a freshman starting at Penn State and one of my only comforts was a signed Freezepop album that I bought off of the band's Web site. This week I received a signed version of their latest album in the mail.

About a year ago, I learned that the Collegian's managing editor of design was going to be leaving his post a semester early. Now I'm that guy.

So to commemorate the occasion, here's a look back at all of my traveling companions from the past 20 weeks of Travis' Travels. While these people were often mentioned only briefly in cameos, here is their chance to shine in the spotlight.

Terry
Harrisburg, The Narrows

Terry used to host poker nights at his apartment until we all decided that we had better things to do than lose $5 every week.

One of his many talents is above-average skill at NBA Jam for Super Nintendo. In this game, you basically mash on buttons for ten minutes until someone wins. I had no idea what I was doing when I played and I only lost by 2 points.

On one particularly memorable night, Terry came up with a nickname for me that cannot be repeated in print. Something I've noticed: Once someone comes up with a nickname for you, they win.

Devon
Philadelphia, Harrisburg

As our editor-in-chief, Devon enjoys her own office complete with chandelier and butler service.

She was my first editor at the Collegian, and she was the one who encouraged me to continue finding the humorous aspects of stories.

Her dad can kill people with his pinky. Think about that the next time you feel like writing her an angry e-mail.

Leslie
Harrisburg, The Narrows

Not a night goes by when Leslie doesn't stop by my door, give me an annoyed look and utter: "I will kill you."

She is the only girl I've met who could beat me in a battle of sarcasm. (As for battles involving physical violence, pretty much any girl could beat me.)

Leslie is the copy desk chief, and this summer she found a stray cat hanging around my apartment. She took it in and nicknamed it the "copy cat." But then, like the French, she cowardly surrendered when its owner responded to a "lost cat" ad that we printed in the paper. Tournée du Chat Noir indeed.

Halle
Philadelphia, Harrisburg, The Narrows

Halle was my editor for my two terms as a senior reporter at the Collegian. Now we share an office where we periodically turn to each other and complain about stuff.

Halle won the Hearst award, if you haven't heard. Do you know how annoying it is to share an office with someone who won a prestigious national award, especially when you're extremely jealous of people who have won prestigious national awards? "I have to get my picture taken today for the Communicator," she'll say, and then probably hop into a limousine to a five-star restaurant where she'll hobnob with reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times while eating fine wines and cheeses.

Fun fact: Her three favorite vegetables are tomatoes, red peppers and cucumbers.

Kevin
Creepy alley, Harrisburg, The Narrows

Kevin Doran's hobbies include punching glass windows, yelling at people while flailing his arms wildly and wearing a Green Day hoodie.

You know when you're entering a new environment and you're worried whether you're going to find anyone who you can relate to? But then you find some guy who you can latch on to and hang around enough until he becomes your friend? For me, that's Kevin.

Here's a funny story about Kevin: One time he had to have his gallbladder removed. In the hospital!

Pat
Pittsburgh

Pat and I have been friends since high school, when we wrote television scripts and made computer games for chemistry extra credit together. In biology I made him dissect the frog while I looked in the other direction and read the instructions off the sheet. (We had to insert an eyedropper into the frog's mouth and use it to inflate the lungs. How sick is that?)

At Penn State, we were roommates for two years. My goal during those two years was to get Pat to display some kind of human emotion, so I would relentlessly provoke him with nonsensical arguments or pretend to be dead until I could elicit some reaction.

Recently Pat is known as "That guy who has Rock Band," the video game where you can pretend to play guitar and drums and sing.

I was at Pat's house over Thanksgiving playing Rock Band and trying to get the XBox to give me points for singing "Roxanne." Pat's mom walked into the room, listened to me sing for a few seconds, then snatched the mic from me and started belting it out. She was awesome. If you're ever playing Rock Band and you need a good singer who also makes a mean no-bake cookie, I highly recommend Pat's mom.

Alaina
Jarcy's Motel, Dean's Diner, Penn's Cave, Nittany Mall, Insect Fair, Bellefonte, Ebensburg, Late Night, New York

Alaina and I met in 11th grade over a plate of General Tso's chicken at LuLu's Noodles in Oakland. We were just friends until the first week of Travis' Travels, when I somehow wooed her by taking her to a creepy motel and a duck pond.

Without Alaina, Travis' Travels wouldn't have happened. She came up with the idea or dragged me along with her to go to a bunch of these places.

No offense to these other chumps, but Alaina really is the best traveling companion there is. She's smart. She's funny. She takes damn good photos. She's a snappy dresser, and she's cute.

Plus she's a pretty decent bassist at Rock Band.

Fall 2007

My final term as managing editor of design on The Daily Collegian was coming to a close. Our car was traveling east on 322.

I was in the back seat -- driving was our managing editor and Hearst award winner Halle Stockton, and riding shotgun was Venues editor Kevin Doran.

We were returning to State College from the home of our night systems supervisor, a man named Tom Owens.

In the back seat with me were Terry Casey and Leslie Small. And as we drove down 322, we marveled at the huge wall to our left that we must not have noticed on the way to Tom's house.

"This reminds me of the narrows," Terry said as we drove past.

The only explanation we could come up with for that wall's existence was that some really industrious workers must have constructed it in the few hours we spent playing Jenga at Tom's.

It wasn't until we saw a sign that said that Harrisburg was a few miles away that we realized we were going in the wrong direction -- that I was going in the wrong direction -- again.

Things sometimes have a funny way of coming full circle.

You never know when you might accidentally drive through the narrows again.

And you never know when a traveling companion you've said goodbye to might pop up again.

So goodbye, guys. Maybe I'll see you again some day -- traveling east on 322.

Read this blog. It will change your life.

Aloha from the sunshine state, sunny Florida, where the sun is shining sunshinefully.

I don't really want to get into the reason I went to Florida, but I do have the Following Florida Fun Facts For Fyou Fto Fread:

1. Floridians love the color taupe.

The Ft. Myers airport was all taupe on the inside. I left and it was taupe on the outside, too. And guess what - all the shopping malls were also taupe. And all the other buildings. Taupe taupe taupe taupe, everywhere you look.

**Extra fun Florida fact: In Florida, oranges are now called "taupes."

2. It is not 25 degrees in Florida.

Actually it's around 72 degrees and sunny right now. People are walking around in shorts and going to the beach. Do you hate them yet?

3. There are old people in Florida.

Florida demographic chart:

4. Florida is flat.

But not as flat as Hayden Christensen's performance in Star Wars Episode 2... am I right?

5. Hurricanes sometimes happen there.

Go to Florida and you will see signs for hurricane evacuation routes all over the place.

Which begs the question: Why would someone move to Florida if there's a greater-than-average risk of a hurricane coming by and knocking your house down?

And for that, I have to give all the grizzled old retirees with poor blood circulation a tip of my hat. They've decided that rather than stay in their safe home states, where 100 mph winds aren't blowing their cars over, they want to take the risk and move to a place where the weather is nice.

Mother nature has provided us with a real-life example of the basic economic principle that greater risk equals greater reward.

Is the symbolism coming across here yet?

Perhaps I, in considering what to do with my life in the coming days, should take into account-
-ah, you know what, screw it. Have a nice weekend everyone.

WRITERS' STRIKE DAY 23
NOTES FROM THE PICKET LINE:

Arguments continue about whether we should be chanting, what our chant should be, and if we write a chant, whether that breaks the strike rules. We ended up deciding to send a team out to buy a magnetic poetry set. We will randomly draw five words from the box and those words will make up our chant.

Photos by Alaina

It's time to revisit my fabulous trip to New York City, New York State. Click on the links on this page somewhere to read Parts 1-3 of my live blog from New York.

PHOTOS

This is the Bamn! Automat. The windows are filled with (mostly fried) food items by this woman who is condemned to work there during all hours of the night. The color scheme was lifted from the Barbie aisle at Toys R Us.

A view of our room at the hostel. Based on my New York experience, I would definitely be willing to stay at a hostel again. The staff was friendly, the rooms and bathrooms were clean, and the random shouting in foreign languages was minimal. I only saw one bug. And it was a tiny one.

There are so many things wrong with this.

1: Who calls their tutoring service "Kumon"? "COME ON, KID! WHY CAN'T YOU READ? WHAT ARE YOU, STUPID!?!?!? LET'S GO KID! COME ON!"

2: Why does that cartoon face have such a bored expression? Apparently nothing says "let's learn" like stoicism.

3. MATH. READING. SUCCESS. How can I trust these people to bring my child to a fourth-grade reading level when their motto is written in caveman speak?

Here we see the glorious cupcakes from Magnolia bakery. Lord, those were some delicious angel turds.

Lookie, it's me enjoying an audio tour at the Guggenheim. Audio tours are fantastic because if the tour guide starts to ramble on about nonsense, you can simply hit the "stop" button to get them to shut up -- unlike in real life where you just have to stand there and pretend that you aren't bored out of your mind.

Ummmmm....

PROVOCATIVE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

If you walk around New York with your ears open, you are bound to hear some fairly interesting conversations that have been going on for about a century.

Overheard at an intersection...

One black man is trying to hail a cab. Another is trying to help him out. They turn their attention away from the street for about ten seconds, during which a cab pulls over and an older white lady hops into it.

Their conversation continues as we cross the street.

Overheard at McDonald's...

A black man is standing in front of McDonald's and acting as a doorman. On our way in, he says, "Enjoy your meal, and I'd appreciate a little help on the way out." So while I'm inside eating my Chicken McNuggets, all I can think about is how awkward it's going to be when we're leaving McDonald's.

WHITE GUY: Why don't you get a job?

SONG ABOUT THE NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY SYSTEM

As the doors on the subway close, a nice little "ding dong" sound plays over the speakers. This mini-melody inspired me to write a song about the subway, which can be found below. Print it out and sing it with your friends on the subway!

The Subway Song

Ding dong
Takin' the number 2 to 116th street
Exiting at Malcolm X Boulevard
Probably not the right stop
Gotta walk around this shady park
So we don't get shanked
'cause we made a mistake
On the
Sub-way.

NEXT WEEK, TRAVIS' TRAVELS GOES TO FLORIDA! Sorry, my Late Night Penn State sequel blog is just gonna have to wait...