July 18, 2007:
In the morning Janet took us down to the beach for breakfast. It was a gorgeous day and the place where we stopped to eat was right on the beach itself. There was a dozen or more beach volleyball courts set up with a number of games going at 9 am on a Wednesday. Only in California I guess (or maybe Hawaii?).
After a nice sunny breakfast, we bid adieu and hopped in the car for a quick jaunt across town to spend the day with Nathan in West Hollywood. It was an approximately 20 mile trip, but as Google Maps will tell you, it's a 35 minute trip, or up to an hour and 40 minutes in traffic. We took I-405 to I-10 and managed to get there eventually. It could have been a lot worse, compared to a 20 mile commuting trip which many of us have experienced at one time or another, but after a couple of weeks on the road, mostly on highways, we were used to knocking out 20 miles in something under 20 minutes.
It's also amazing to see how big the interstates in southern California are. The new mixing bowl in Springfield, VA is 24 lanes across at the widest point, but you can only see maybe a third of those at one time. All these major interstates are 4, 5, or 6 lanes across for miles at a time--and most distressingly full for miles at a time.
Nathan's complex is in the Park La Brea area of L.A. One of the first things we learned was that somebody from Laguna Beach or the spinoff lived in the gourmet-looking complex across the street. I think they've even filmed some pool-side shots there--not that Nathan has a view from his apartment; we checked. His apartment is a regular two bedroom apartment with a big living room and a small kitchen, like most apartments built a long time ago.
We dropped our stuff off inside and then he took us on a drive around L.A. to see the sights that us regular schlubs only hear about or see on Entourage (no, we didn't make it by the Playboy Mansion). He drove us by a couple of the tv studios nearby (CBS and NBC??); we saw the Hollywood sign from the city (face north on N Gower St at Hollywood Blvd or Franklin Ave); we drove by the Whisky a Go Go and that place where River Phoenix overdosed (the Viper Room); we drove by the Chinese Theatre; we passed through some famous L.A. intersections of pop culture such as Hollywood and Vine; we drove down Rodeo Dr and saw the naked silver torso statue as well as two Ferrarris; I think we saw three Bentleys and two Rolls along the way as well; we also drove through some of the tony neighborhoods just to see some of the houses and palm trees.
Eventually we got hungry, and fortunately Nathan took us to one of the greatest restaurants I have ever experienced: Roscoe's House of Chicken N Waffles. I think there are several locations around L.A. It was a mid-size, basic restaurant, somewhere between an IHOP and Waffle House in design and amenities. There is a full menu, but you more or less order one of several combos of waffles and fried chicken. I think most of us have eaten enough good fried chicken in our lives to have a hard time saying any one batch was the best they'd ever had; that being said, this was as good fried chicken as I have ever had. The waffle, on the other hand, was definitively the best waffle I'd ever had. We all overate dramatically, but I left that placed convinced there was some sort of drug in the waffle or its butter or syrup. Can't recommend 'Scoes enough.
We went out later for the evening and stopped at a couple of Nathan's preferred places in L.A. We hit up Barney's Beanery, which was a cool dive to have a couple pitchers. We also headed over to another place which had more of a lounge vibe going on. We ran into a couple of Nathan's friends who were Syracuse TRF (television, radio, film) grads a year or two before my brother. It was pretty cool to go back and tell my brother that people from his program are working in L.A. Eventually we made it back to Nathan's place to crash before the long and awesome PCH drive to San Fran coming up in the morning.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Going back in time...Eleventh Day
Well, I'm making my first effort to re-create the trip blog. I WILL succeed.
July 17, 2007:
Picking up where I left off in San Diego, (which by the way, was named after Saint Didacus of Alcalá--more commonly known as San Diego--who was was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor, and not an animal part) in the morning Jason and I got up and went to the Hash House a Go Go for breakfast. We received this recommendation from John and Kristen. This place is midwest farm food on mega-amounts of HGH, or food GH or something. It has a rockabilly/punk feel about it. Each breakfast dish that we saw served that morning comes out on a white, oval platter about 3 feet long and a foot across at the widest point.
I ordered the smoked salmon, basil pesto, tomato and brie egg scramble which came with crispy breakfast potatoes and a biscuit, and Jason got the sage fried chicken eggs benedict which included spinach, smoked bacon, tomato, mozzarella and a chipotle cream. My salmon scramble was the best egg dish I've ever had in my life. I finished a little over half of it. There were a number of other tourists in the place and everyone kept leaning over to neighboring tables to see what other people had ordered. A nearby couple split a pancake that was about 18 inches across and 2 inches thick.
There are Hash Houses in SD, Las Vegas and now open in KC. You have to make an effort to go to one of them if you can.
After breakfast we knew that we had to walk it off a little before sitting in the car for a couple hours. We headed to Balboa Park to check it out. There are quite a number of interesting sights in the Park. One of the first things we stumbled across was a very nice bocce court with some games in progress. When we walked closer to check it out, one of the participants came over to say hello and recruit us for the club. I think they are looking for young blood to keep the club going. In all seriousness, though, it does look kind of fun. I think I got hooked on this genre of competition after watching curling in the last Winter Olympics. If anyone wants to go curling with me this winter there's a complex in MD that I want to go check out.
OK, tangent done. We then walked on to the museum area of the park. There are a number of cool museums that we didn't have time to see but I would like to next time I'm in town. The Museum of Man is pretty famous and there were several other exhibits including art galleries and a Globe Theater replica. The San Diego Zoo also borders Balboa Park, but we had to settle for the awesome stop at the Wild Animal Park.
Balboa Park was cool and a place that I look forward to checking out in greater detail. But we had to hit the road and head on to the City of Angels, or the LA greater metro area anyway. We hit I-5 and drove up the coast, which was a pretty nice drive. Saw a carrier a few miles offshore. Been there done that, though. (In another life I got to land on a carrier, spend the night and watch flight operations on the deck. Ask me if you're interested to hear about that.) We also drove past a number of really large houses with great views and no doubt manufactured drama being created and videotaped inside (i.e. we passed Laguna and Newport Beaches).
We made it to Phil and Janet's house in Hermosa Beach mid-afternoon that day. And while I hate commuting in the DC area, let's just say I'm not in a hurry to move to South Cali and have a 20 mile commute out there. Sheesh. Janet was stuck in jury duty til the evening, so we hung with Phil, had some libations (Phil makes a mean and delicious rum and coke) and told some stories. We also met the guard dogs, who while not too bad on the bite, had a hell of a bark.
We went down to the beach and saw the view down to Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes and up to Manhattan Beach at sunset. Absolutely stunning! We went to a great little Mexican place where they knew everyone on staff and had a great dinner. After dinner Jason and I walked around the beach bar area and found a place that had live band karaoke. We got there too late to sing (the line was real long) but it was cool too watch folks get up on stage with a live band and sing their favorite tunes. At the end of the night we caught a cab back and crashed in our respective rooms at Janet and Phil's. (They had separate rooms for us, which was the ultimate luxury on this trip.)
Another amazing day on the road and in California.
July 17, 2007:
Picking up where I left off in San Diego, (which by the way, was named after Saint Didacus of Alcalá--more commonly known as San Diego--who was was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor, and not an animal part) in the morning Jason and I got up and went to the Hash House a Go Go for breakfast. We received this recommendation from John and Kristen. This place is midwest farm food on mega-amounts of HGH, or food GH or something. It has a rockabilly/punk feel about it. Each breakfast dish that we saw served that morning comes out on a white, oval platter about 3 feet long and a foot across at the widest point.
I ordered the smoked salmon, basil pesto, tomato and brie egg scramble which came with crispy breakfast potatoes and a biscuit, and Jason got the sage fried chicken eggs benedict which included spinach, smoked bacon, tomato, mozzarella and a chipotle cream. My salmon scramble was the best egg dish I've ever had in my life. I finished a little over half of it. There were a number of other tourists in the place and everyone kept leaning over to neighboring tables to see what other people had ordered. A nearby couple split a pancake that was about 18 inches across and 2 inches thick.
There are Hash Houses in SD, Las Vegas and now open in KC. You have to make an effort to go to one of them if you can.
After breakfast we knew that we had to walk it off a little before sitting in the car for a couple hours. We headed to Balboa Park to check it out. There are quite a number of interesting sights in the Park. One of the first things we stumbled across was a very nice bocce court with some games in progress. When we walked closer to check it out, one of the participants came over to say hello and recruit us for the club. I think they are looking for young blood to keep the club going. In all seriousness, though, it does look kind of fun. I think I got hooked on this genre of competition after watching curling in the last Winter Olympics. If anyone wants to go curling with me this winter there's a complex in MD that I want to go check out.
OK, tangent done. We then walked on to the museum area of the park. There are a number of cool museums that we didn't have time to see but I would like to next time I'm in town. The Museum of Man is pretty famous and there were several other exhibits including art galleries and a Globe Theater replica. The San Diego Zoo also borders Balboa Park, but we had to settle for the awesome stop at the Wild Animal Park.
Balboa Park was cool and a place that I look forward to checking out in greater detail. But we had to hit the road and head on to the City of Angels, or the LA greater metro area anyway. We hit I-5 and drove up the coast, which was a pretty nice drive. Saw a carrier a few miles offshore. Been there done that, though. (In another life I got to land on a carrier, spend the night and watch flight operations on the deck. Ask me if you're interested to hear about that.) We also drove past a number of really large houses with great views and no doubt manufactured drama being created and videotaped inside (i.e. we passed Laguna and Newport Beaches).
We made it to Phil and Janet's house in Hermosa Beach mid-afternoon that day. And while I hate commuting in the DC area, let's just say I'm not in a hurry to move to South Cali and have a 20 mile commute out there. Sheesh. Janet was stuck in jury duty til the evening, so we hung with Phil, had some libations (Phil makes a mean and delicious rum and coke) and told some stories. We also met the guard dogs, who while not too bad on the bite, had a hell of a bark.
We went down to the beach and saw the view down to Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes and up to Manhattan Beach at sunset. Absolutely stunning! We went to a great little Mexican place where they knew everyone on staff and had a great dinner. After dinner Jason and I walked around the beach bar area and found a place that had live band karaoke. We got there too late to sing (the line was real long) but it was cool too watch folks get up on stage with a live band and sing their favorite tunes. At the end of the night we caught a cab back and crashed in our respective rooms at Janet and Phil's. (They had separate rooms for us, which was the ultimate luxury on this trip.)
Another amazing day on the road and in California.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Twenty-eighth Day: We're Home!
Saturday August 4, 2007, 3 pm:
Well, Jason and I made it home safe and sound late last night, sometime after midnight. We left Kingsport, TN after dinner at Jason's mom's house and made the final leg of the drive up I-81 to I-66 all the way to Arlington, VA.
We are slightly ahead of ourselves after deciding not to spend the night in Memphis, and have been a night ahead of the original plan throughout the state of Tennessee. Thus, we got to Kingsport after dinner on Thursday, and decided to spend the day in Kingsport and hit the road at night, which brought us home to our own beds for the night on Friday.
Now that we've had a good night's sleep we're going to go out camping for our buddy, Brian Tallman's bachelor party. We're heading out to the park in Reston to meet up with the rest of the gang that is doing lunch at the Dominion Brewing Company. It should be a great time telling Tallman stories and probably a few from this trip as well.
Please keep checking back as I continue to retroactively add entries from the trip. I'm still working on pictures as well. So please stay tuned!
Well, Jason and I made it home safe and sound late last night, sometime after midnight. We left Kingsport, TN after dinner at Jason's mom's house and made the final leg of the drive up I-81 to I-66 all the way to Arlington, VA.
We are slightly ahead of ourselves after deciding not to spend the night in Memphis, and have been a night ahead of the original plan throughout the state of Tennessee. Thus, we got to Kingsport after dinner on Thursday, and decided to spend the day in Kingsport and hit the road at night, which brought us home to our own beds for the night on Friday.
Now that we've had a good night's sleep we're going to go out camping for our buddy, Brian Tallman's bachelor party. We're heading out to the park in Reston to meet up with the rest of the gang that is doing lunch at the Dominion Brewing Company. It should be a great time telling Tallman stories and probably a few from this trip as well.
Please keep checking back as I continue to retroactively add entries from the trip. I'm still working on pictures as well. So please stay tuned!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Twenty-sixth Day: in Nashville
So, in retrospect, I wish I had set the blog up from the beginning, rather than a week and a half in. I've been chasing myself to make entries and falling farther and farther behind the way I've been going. Oh well. I will continue to make entries until I get all my trip logs up anyway, but as I sit here in Nashville, after a fun night out, and its late... I can still mash out a few sentences for all the fans out there.
We've had a fun time in Nashville, even though we didn't make it to the Opry. We found Broadway in downtown Nashville, where the bulk of the live music in the city is going on, or so it was as far as we could tell. We saw a couple of good Rockabilly-type groups as well as a couple of other twang-y country-western-rock bands, including an all-women group that was pretty good.
Had some good Mexican at the San Antonio Taco Company over by the Vandy campus. Does anyone know if this is a national chain? It was pretty good Mexican food, and there are at least two of them here in Nashville.
On the way to tacos, we got lost and in making a turn to try to get back onto the road we wanted, we stumbled onto the national headquarters of Chi Psi, our college fraternity. I'm not kidding. We literally made a turn onto a random street that we thought was a cross street to get us back going in the right direction when we went past the sign for the building and I yelled at Jason to pull over. We met the couple of guys in there preparing for our national convention this weekend, including the exec dir who we had met while in college. It's a nice building and it was cool to pop in and say hello.
It was a fun day, and I'll try to get some more stuff up tomorrow. Goodnight.
We've had a fun time in Nashville, even though we didn't make it to the Opry. We found Broadway in downtown Nashville, where the bulk of the live music in the city is going on, or so it was as far as we could tell. We saw a couple of good Rockabilly-type groups as well as a couple of other twang-y country-western-rock bands, including an all-women group that was pretty good.
Had some good Mexican at the San Antonio Taco Company over by the Vandy campus. Does anyone know if this is a national chain? It was pretty good Mexican food, and there are at least two of them here in Nashville.
On the way to tacos, we got lost and in making a turn to try to get back onto the road we wanted, we stumbled onto the national headquarters of Chi Psi, our college fraternity. I'm not kidding. We literally made a turn onto a random street that we thought was a cross street to get us back going in the right direction when we went past the sign for the building and I yelled at Jason to pull over. We met the couple of guys in there preparing for our national convention this weekend, including the exec dir who we had met while in college. It's a nice building and it was cool to pop in and say hello.
It was a fun day, and I'll try to get some more stuff up tomorrow. Goodnight.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Tenth Day: to San Diego
OK, a concession to time and reality: Jason and I have made it all the way into Tennessee and are staying in Jackson, after a fun afternoon nearby in Memphis. Saw some good blues and R&B, and had some really good pork barbecue on Beale Street, the historic area of nightclubs in Memphis. Now back to your regularly scheduled update...
Monday July 16, 2007, 11 pm:
We slept in a little after crashing somewhat early in Vegas. We got driving and it is through a lot of desert from Nevada into Southern California. At times it felt like we were driving on the moon or something. A couple of times we went over some mountains, and then back into more desert. We took I-15 to I-215 and skirted west of LA through San Bernardino and Riverside to get to San Diego. We passed through Zzyxx, CA, which is a funny name for a town.
Once you get to San Bernardino, everything starts to look like California. And everything starts to look like everything else. Although around San Diego in particular, they haven’t finished building any bridges as far as we could tell, as every overpass in sight was under construction and detours abounded. I thought San Diego has been around for a long time now, but I guess they’re still building it. Also, several times we thought we’d seen the elusive Hawaii license plate, only to discover that it was a Mexican plate. We saw a lot of those.
Along the way Jason remembered that Janet, his dad's friend who we’ll be staying with in L.A. told us about the San Diego Wild Animal Park outside of San Diego. We looked it up in the trusty AAA book and discovered it is 30 miles north of the city, which we were rapidly approaching. It was mid-afternoon, so we decided to make a stop at the place. It is a pretty cool park that is largely an Africa-themed zoo where everything is outdoors. It is quite large with a couple of areas that are best seen by tram, which we accomplished. We walked most of the rest of the park and took copious pictures. The largest giraffe in the U.S. is at this park, as are a number of large African animals I’d never heard of. Also: gorillas, cheetahs, lions, meerkats, rhinos, elephants, etc. At one point on the tram tour we passed by a young, 6-point buck that walked right next to the tram, but the tour guide continued to talk about the zebras way at the bottom of the hill below. We also caught a show with a caracal (like a lynx) that was on a leash with a trainer and jumping 6 feet in the air after a toy. Quite impressive.
After the park, we checked into our Days Inn that we had reserved the night before. We then drove on to Coronado, which is an island/isthmus across the bay from San Diego. I had visited there once before through work on a Navy-sponsored trip. It was quite breezy and mile, to the point that I was getting cold and thought that we had hit possibly the coldest point of the trip. I was grateful that I brought my windbreaker for the evening. We had a nice seafood dinner at the Brigantine. Then we checked out the Hotel Del Coronado, which is one of the nicest hotels in the area. We walked through the nice lobby to the back deck and had our first sighting of the Pacific Ocean. Success! We made it all the way across the continent. Now to see if we can make it back…
Monday July 16, 2007, 11 pm:
We slept in a little after crashing somewhat early in Vegas. We got driving and it is through a lot of desert from Nevada into Southern California. At times it felt like we were driving on the moon or something. A couple of times we went over some mountains, and then back into more desert. We took I-15 to I-215 and skirted west of LA through San Bernardino and Riverside to get to San Diego. We passed through Zzyxx, CA, which is a funny name for a town.
Once you get to San Bernardino, everything starts to look like California. And everything starts to look like everything else. Although around San Diego in particular, they haven’t finished building any bridges as far as we could tell, as every overpass in sight was under construction and detours abounded. I thought San Diego has been around for a long time now, but I guess they’re still building it. Also, several times we thought we’d seen the elusive Hawaii license plate, only to discover that it was a Mexican plate. We saw a lot of those.
Along the way Jason remembered that Janet, his dad's friend who we’ll be staying with in L.A. told us about the San Diego Wild Animal Park outside of San Diego. We looked it up in the trusty AAA book and discovered it is 30 miles north of the city, which we were rapidly approaching. It was mid-afternoon, so we decided to make a stop at the place. It is a pretty cool park that is largely an Africa-themed zoo where everything is outdoors. It is quite large with a couple of areas that are best seen by tram, which we accomplished. We walked most of the rest of the park and took copious pictures. The largest giraffe in the U.S. is at this park, as are a number of large African animals I’d never heard of. Also: gorillas, cheetahs, lions, meerkats, rhinos, elephants, etc. At one point on the tram tour we passed by a young, 6-point buck that walked right next to the tram, but the tour guide continued to talk about the zebras way at the bottom of the hill below. We also caught a show with a caracal (like a lynx) that was on a leash with a trainer and jumping 6 feet in the air after a toy. Quite impressive.
After the park, we checked into our Days Inn that we had reserved the night before. We then drove on to Coronado, which is an island/isthmus across the bay from San Diego. I had visited there once before through work on a Navy-sponsored trip. It was quite breezy and mile, to the point that I was getting cold and thought that we had hit possibly the coldest point of the trip. I was grateful that I brought my windbreaker for the evening. We had a nice seafood dinner at the Brigantine. Then we checked out the Hotel Del Coronado, which is one of the nicest hotels in the area. We walked through the nice lobby to the back deck and had our first sighting of the Pacific Ocean. Success! We made it all the way across the continent. Now to see if we can make it back…
Monday, July 30, 2007
Ninth Day: in Las Vegas
Sunday, July 15, 2007, 10 pm:
Lee left for airport around 6 am. Suraj left around 10 am.
Dave and I went down to the Imperial Palace in the morning and very quickly started giving all our winnings back. We took a break and went to Denny’s for brunch. At some point when Dave and I were playing blackjack at the IP we played at one of the Dealertainer tables, where all of the dealers in this area are dressed up and look like real life entertainers, such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Madonna, etc. They take turns performing on a stage in the center of the pit area. There was also a guy claiming to be Elvis who was a dead ringer in the face and even the hair for Johnny Cash. We played with Alice Cooper. At one point after losing the fourth hand in a row and being almost out of chips, Alice gave me a laugh by telling me that “There’s no shame in getting your ass kicked by Alice Cooper.”
Jason and Konlee got up and ended up going to Denny’s for lunch after us.
We eventually met up with Jason and Konlee and played some blackjack. We were sitting at a table with a guy who was going for a Fidel Castro look. He wasn’t a dealertainer I don’t think, but he really looked like Fidel with the beard, hat and coat. He split 10s three different times because as he explained to us, the dealer had 4 through 6, and that’s the worst card the dealer could have there. He made a lot of money while all of us lost ours, and it was all really annoying because the guy barely understood blackjack. Twice he split the 10 out to four ways because he kept getting more 10s.
Konlee and I checked out the IP’s classic car collection, which is something like the biggest permanent viewable car collection in the world. And almost all of the cars are for sale. We saw a bunch of classics: several rarities valued in the millions, a few from movie sets, some randoms like a 1974 VW with only 600 miles on sale for $6,000, also some road race or rally cars including a mid-80s rally car that went 0 to 60 in 2.2 seconds, which I didn’t even know was possible. That was a cool exhibit.
Konlee left for the airport mid-afternoon.
Dave, Jason and I went to the Italian place at the IP for dinner which was passable. Nothing like a classic Vegas buffet or anything—the place seated maybe thirty people and was mostly empty.
Dave headed to the airport early evening, and Jason and I, exhausted, have decided to make it an early night to keep our bodies functioning on this trip. Goodnight.
Lee left for airport around 6 am. Suraj left around 10 am.
Dave and I went down to the Imperial Palace in the morning and very quickly started giving all our winnings back. We took a break and went to Denny’s for brunch. At some point when Dave and I were playing blackjack at the IP we played at one of the Dealertainer tables, where all of the dealers in this area are dressed up and look like real life entertainers, such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Madonna, etc. They take turns performing on a stage in the center of the pit area. There was also a guy claiming to be Elvis who was a dead ringer in the face and even the hair for Johnny Cash. We played with Alice Cooper. At one point after losing the fourth hand in a row and being almost out of chips, Alice gave me a laugh by telling me that “There’s no shame in getting your ass kicked by Alice Cooper.”
Jason and Konlee got up and ended up going to Denny’s for lunch after us.
We eventually met up with Jason and Konlee and played some blackjack. We were sitting at a table with a guy who was going for a Fidel Castro look. He wasn’t a dealertainer I don’t think, but he really looked like Fidel with the beard, hat and coat. He split 10s three different times because as he explained to us, the dealer had 4 through 6, and that’s the worst card the dealer could have there. He made a lot of money while all of us lost ours, and it was all really annoying because the guy barely understood blackjack. Twice he split the 10 out to four ways because he kept getting more 10s.
Konlee and I checked out the IP’s classic car collection, which is something like the biggest permanent viewable car collection in the world. And almost all of the cars are for sale. We saw a bunch of classics: several rarities valued in the millions, a few from movie sets, some randoms like a 1974 VW with only 600 miles on sale for $6,000, also some road race or rally cars including a mid-80s rally car that went 0 to 60 in 2.2 seconds, which I didn’t even know was possible. That was a cool exhibit.
Konlee left for the airport mid-afternoon.
Dave, Jason and I went to the Italian place at the IP for dinner which was passable. Nothing like a classic Vegas buffet or anything—the place seated maybe thirty people and was mostly empty.
Dave headed to the airport early evening, and Jason and I, exhausted, have decided to make it an early night to keep our bodies functioning on this trip. Goodnight.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Eighth Day: in Las Vegas
Sunday July 15, 2007, 9 am:
Dave and I got up and went to the tables early.
Met up with everyone for lunch, which ended up being a trip to In-N-Out Burger. That was a major goal for the trip, and it was successfully accomplished. While there, Jason got a text from Suraj that seemed to suggest he was in Vegas (he was a maybe due to family), but at the end of it he said “just kidding.” We were confused. Then Suraj called someone else to find out where to meet us. So it turned out he is in town, and he met us at the In-N-Out Burger. Of course, we forgot to get a picture of the In-N-Out Burger accomplishment, but if we made too big a deal of it, we wouldn't have a reason to keep going on the trip.
Discovered O’Shea’s, the Dr. Dremo’s/Irish Pub/Dive Bar of the Strip. Has beer pong in the back, a Burger King and a Subway for its food options, and has “Strip Poker.” Strip Poker is a couple of tables of poker in the front looking out at the Strip.
Lee remembered that Saturday was Bastille Day so we eventually went down to the casino Paris. We figured there would be some sort of extra celebration because of Bastille Day, but alas, we were disappointed. Not only was there no extra festivities for Bastille Day, but none of the staff that we spoke to had any idea what we were talking about. None of the strangers we went up to knew about it either. We decided that they were saving the big party for Super Bastille Day, which comes the next day, July 15, and recognizes the French bourgeois who came back to seize power from the poor.
There was more gambling, etc. and we were out until 5:30 am. Goodnight.
Seventh Day: in Las Vegas
Saturday, July 14, 2007, 5 am:
We got up and got going from John and Kristen’s on the way to Vegas. We took some back roads that John told us about to avoid going backwards for a while and got onto I-15. We made it into Arizona for about 15 minutes on the way to I-15 and we went through the town of Beaver Dam. This was about the most depressed town I’ve ever seen. There were several bad looking trailer parks and a number of deserted buildings and one small resort section. It was like something out of a movie, possibly horror or Stephen King.
The rest of the drive to Las Vegas was pretty easy. You know when you hit Nevada because the town of Mesquite, NV on the border has a number of casinos and resorts. We hit some traffic on the way into town which slowed us a little. It was about noon on a Friday so I’m not too surprised. In addition, the main event of the World Series of Poker is ongoing, so that may create more traffic for the weekend.
Drove straight to Mandalay Bay where Mike and Hillary were checking out. Met up with them and went to a great buffet for lunch at Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin). Then on to the local poker room. I had to wait a long time for a seat to open up at a 1-2 table, but I did, and eventually everyone else moved over. I had beginner’s luck with the cards, and won $100 total, even with some bad plays. At one point I had the best hand possible, but I forgot and accidentally slow played a guy when I had him beat—kind of a jerk move. Fortunately Jason and Mike were sitting near him and told him that I didn’t know better. I also had a full house with Kings over Aces but didn’t know it and didn’t raise when I should have. Oh well. Good learning experience.
Jason and I went and checked in at the Imperial Palace, which is the Motel 6 of the Strip, though it is a good location. Then our friends Konlee Dobbins and Lee Demaree got in from the airport. Lee purchased his ticket this morning at the airport. Very excited to see him. Went out to the Orleans off the strip to meet up with Mike and Hillary. Played some 2 deck blackjack and won some money. Mike and Hillary left. Other four of us ate at TGI Friday’s. Lee and I went off to a club (Tabu?) at MGM Grand. Had fun there and saw several bachelorette parties. Dave Cunningham got in later that evening. He, Jason and Konlee came to MGM and more gambling occurred. At the end of the night someone said I should go take the $100 chip I had and bet it on a hand of blackjack. I was suggestible at that point in the evening apparently, so before anyone else could stop me, I went and bet the chip and won the hand! Then everyone went home, got in around 4:30 am, and Lee got back around 5:30 am.
Ended up about $230 up the first day…pretty good for Friday the 13th.
We got up and got going from John and Kristen’s on the way to Vegas. We took some back roads that John told us about to avoid going backwards for a while and got onto I-15. We made it into Arizona for about 15 minutes on the way to I-15 and we went through the town of Beaver Dam. This was about the most depressed town I’ve ever seen. There were several bad looking trailer parks and a number of deserted buildings and one small resort section. It was like something out of a movie, possibly horror or Stephen King.
The rest of the drive to Las Vegas was pretty easy. You know when you hit Nevada because the town of Mesquite, NV on the border has a number of casinos and resorts. We hit some traffic on the way into town which slowed us a little. It was about noon on a Friday so I’m not too surprised. In addition, the main event of the World Series of Poker is ongoing, so that may create more traffic for the weekend.
Drove straight to Mandalay Bay where Mike and Hillary were checking out. Met up with them and went to a great buffet for lunch at Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin). Then on to the local poker room. I had to wait a long time for a seat to open up at a 1-2 table, but I did, and eventually everyone else moved over. I had beginner’s luck with the cards, and won $100 total, even with some bad plays. At one point I had the best hand possible, but I forgot and accidentally slow played a guy when I had him beat—kind of a jerk move. Fortunately Jason and Mike were sitting near him and told him that I didn’t know better. I also had a full house with Kings over Aces but didn’t know it and didn’t raise when I should have. Oh well. Good learning experience.
Jason and I went and checked in at the Imperial Palace, which is the Motel 6 of the Strip, though it is a good location. Then our friends Konlee Dobbins and Lee Demaree got in from the airport. Lee purchased his ticket this morning at the airport. Very excited to see him. Went out to the Orleans off the strip to meet up with Mike and Hillary. Played some 2 deck blackjack and won some money. Mike and Hillary left. Other four of us ate at TGI Friday’s. Lee and I went off to a club (Tabu?) at MGM Grand. Had fun there and saw several bachelorette parties. Dave Cunningham got in later that evening. He, Jason and Konlee came to MGM and more gambling occurred. At the end of the night someone said I should go take the $100 chip I had and bet it on a hand of blackjack. I was suggestible at that point in the evening apparently, so before anyone else could stop me, I went and bet the chip and won the hand! Then everyone went home, got in around 4:30 am, and Lee got back around 5:30 am.
Ended up about $230 up the first day…pretty good for Friday the 13th.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Sixth Day: in southern UT
Thursday, July 12, 2007, 10:20 pm:
Jason, John and I went down to the neighborhood art gallery area which also has a coffeeshop/restaurant attached to it. I mean, this is right in the middle of the houses of the community. We had good iced lattes and Jason and I had the specialty Belgian waffle, which is covered peanut butter sauce, strawberries and whipped cream and is delicious. After breakfast we met up with Kristen and then we headed out on our great adventure in southern Utah.
Essentially, we visited three parks and monuments with some cool driving in between. (A national park requires congressional action to establish, whereas the President can create a national monument by executive order. I’m not sure what benefits parks have over monuments.) Cedar Breaks National Monument was the first stop. We drove up to the viewing station of the rock formations, and it was an amazing view. It was also very windy, to the point that I was surprised how cold I was and thought that it was the coldest I would be on the trip.
Then we drove over to Brian Head Peak, which is approximately the next mountain over from Cedar Breaks, but is not in a national park or monument. There is a neat building on top of the peak which was built during the depression by one of the New Deal organizations. We drove above the tree line to get to the top, which led to some interesting views as well, including of some tiny, tortured looking trees that were attempting to grow at altitudes that they just shouldn’t be.
From Brian Head we drove into what amounted to the back entrance of Zion National Park. We saw some gorgeous views of the mountains and rock formations in the park until we got to a parking area near a short hike. Though it was about 105 degrees outside, it was quite dry and a little breezy, so it didn’t feel too bad. We walked the trail for about a mile until we got to an amazing lookout point in the middle of the park. From this point you could see several nearby peaks, many of which were named for their appearances. There was a deep blue sky and puffy white clouds, all of which enhanced the views. Most of the other tourists we saw appeared to be European and not interested in talking or saying hello.
After the hike, we drove through the tunnel to begin exiting the park. The tunnel has several windows where the rock that was removed to form the tunnel was dumped out the side of the tunnel to the canyon floor below. We also jumped on a tour bus that took us around several other parts of the park. There were a number of great views of towering rock formations as well as entry points for many different hikes in the park.
We drove into the nearby town for dinner and stopped at a burger/taco place. Jason had a 39 oz. beer that didn’t give him a buzz because we figured, eventually, that Utah only has 3.2 beer. So it only made him over full and not buzzed. When we got back to St. George, we stopped off at Nielsen’s for frozen custard, which had been sold to us for an hour as being better than most any ice cream ever had. I was hard pressed to believe it, but it’s true. The frozen custard of Nielsen’s is smoother and tastier than regular ice cream. It was amazing.
We finally made it back to John and Kristen’s, where we talked for a little while before retiring to bed. I couldn’t get to sleep for quite a while because I was so full. Goodnight…
Jason, John and I went down to the neighborhood art gallery area which also has a coffeeshop/restaurant attached to it. I mean, this is right in the middle of the houses of the community. We had good iced lattes and Jason and I had the specialty Belgian waffle, which is covered peanut butter sauce, strawberries and whipped cream and is delicious. After breakfast we met up with Kristen and then we headed out on our great adventure in southern Utah.
Essentially, we visited three parks and monuments with some cool driving in between. (A national park requires congressional action to establish, whereas the President can create a national monument by executive order. I’m not sure what benefits parks have over monuments.) Cedar Breaks National Monument was the first stop. We drove up to the viewing station of the rock formations, and it was an amazing view. It was also very windy, to the point that I was surprised how cold I was and thought that it was the coldest I would be on the trip.
Then we drove over to Brian Head Peak, which is approximately the next mountain over from Cedar Breaks, but is not in a national park or monument. There is a neat building on top of the peak which was built during the depression by one of the New Deal organizations. We drove above the tree line to get to the top, which led to some interesting views as well, including of some tiny, tortured looking trees that were attempting to grow at altitudes that they just shouldn’t be.
From Brian Head we drove into what amounted to the back entrance of Zion National Park. We saw some gorgeous views of the mountains and rock formations in the park until we got to a parking area near a short hike. Though it was about 105 degrees outside, it was quite dry and a little breezy, so it didn’t feel too bad. We walked the trail for about a mile until we got to an amazing lookout point in the middle of the park. From this point you could see several nearby peaks, many of which were named for their appearances. There was a deep blue sky and puffy white clouds, all of which enhanced the views. Most of the other tourists we saw appeared to be European and not interested in talking or saying hello.
After the hike, we drove through the tunnel to begin exiting the park. The tunnel has several windows where the rock that was removed to form the tunnel was dumped out the side of the tunnel to the canyon floor below. We also jumped on a tour bus that took us around several other parts of the park. There were a number of great views of towering rock formations as well as entry points for many different hikes in the park.
We drove into the nearby town for dinner and stopped at a burger/taco place. Jason had a 39 oz. beer that didn’t give him a buzz because we figured, eventually, that Utah only has 3.2 beer. So it only made him over full and not buzzed. When we got back to St. George, we stopped off at Nielsen’s for frozen custard, which had been sold to us for an hour as being better than most any ice cream ever had. I was hard pressed to believe it, but it’s true. The frozen custard of Nielsen’s is smoother and tastier than regular ice cream. It was amazing.
We finally made it back to John and Kristen’s, where we talked for a little while before retiring to bed. I couldn’t get to sleep for quite a while because I was so full. Goodnight…
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Fifth Day: to Ivins, UT
Wednesday July 11, 2007, 11 pm:
Knowing that we had a long day of driving ahead of us, and having had a good night’s sleep the night before, we were up and at ‘em on Wed. morning. Jason walked Skadi and Ares with Becca while I packed things up. We were on the road from Becca’s by 7:50 a.m., which may prove to be the early point of the trip.
Once we got going on I-70 west of Denver we got into the Rockies for real. No more straight, flat driving. We were able to keep moving, but we went up and down some serious grades, and curved around some serious peaks. It was pretty fun to see and a little hairy to drive in a couple of spots. At one point we came over a hill and all of a sudden we came upon a town nestled (as all such towns must be described) in the mountains at the foot of a peak sitting on a mountain lake. I believe the town was Frisco. We pulled off for some pictures and cardio. At something over 9,000 feet, it was one of the highest points we’d experienced so far, and about the highest altitude I’ve ever been at. Jason convinced me to check out the effect of the altitude, so I took off for a jog about 100 yards down the parking area, looped around and came running back. The whole way running I felt pretty good; the breathing was working fine. When I pulled up to a stop, I was wheezing like nothing else. I thought I had just run clear from Denver. Jason, bastion of fitness and cardio that he is, pointed and laughed.
The driving through the Rockies was gorgeous. We passed several ski resorts that were exhibiting their summer coloring—that is had big green slopes down their sides. We passed Copper Mountain, Vail, and Eagle among other communities.
After a while you get somewhat accustomed to the American Alps appearance of the ski resort communities in the Rockies, but pretty soon after I got to that point we were driving uphill and we saw a sign ahead welcoming us to Utah. That was kind of a good feeling, like we were making progress. Then we crested the hill, came out of the mountains and saw an amazing, expansive view of the huge valley that we had just entered. You go from green mountains to desert with distant, desolate mountains and rocks in all directions. Some of the views are great, especially in the area of Arches Nat’l Park, which we drove near on I-70. We stopped at several scenic overlooks and got pictures. Many of them looked kind of like the Grand Canyon, or so I imagine. It took longer than planned to get through Utah, but we didn’t have a particular time to get to St. George, UT, where we were staying with John and Kristen Hunt.
You may have heard that there have been quite a number of fires burning out west this summer. We had heard a couple of days before driving in Utah that part of our path through the state had been recently blocked by one of the fires. In fact, Utah was currently experiencing the single largest fire in state history. The first evidence of fires we saw was along the side of I-70 in Utah. We drove up multiple cars worth of firefighting officials finishing putting out a fire that stretched for several hundred yards down the road. I speculated that it was from a cigarette butt or something. We could see multiple locations where the ground was still smoking and they were still using the hose on a section, though we didn’t see any flames.
We worked our way across Utah to I-15 in the middle of the state. Soon after getting on I-15 we saw where some of the wildfires had burned entire hillsides of foliage. There was a spot where the fire had jumped over I-15. We had heard that I-15 was closed in this area a couple of days prior, but fortunately it was open by that point. Along the way, we saw several other burnt areas and smoke coming out of the mountains to the west of I-15. We even saw a helicopter with the bucket underneath drop its contents onto the mountain below. I couldn’t see any flames there either, but it was a dramatic sight.
We finally arrived at John and Kristen Hunt’s house in Ivins, Utah, which is a small community a little outside of St. George, Utah. The drive was about 12.5 hours, which is the longest so far, but it wasn’t too bad a drive, with a lot of great sights to see along the way.
All for now, good night…
Knowing that we had a long day of driving ahead of us, and having had a good night’s sleep the night before, we were up and at ‘em on Wed. morning. Jason walked Skadi and Ares with Becca while I packed things up. We were on the road from Becca’s by 7:50 a.m., which may prove to be the early point of the trip.
Once we got going on I-70 west of Denver we got into the Rockies for real. No more straight, flat driving. We were able to keep moving, but we went up and down some serious grades, and curved around some serious peaks. It was pretty fun to see and a little hairy to drive in a couple of spots. At one point we came over a hill and all of a sudden we came upon a town nestled (as all such towns must be described) in the mountains at the foot of a peak sitting on a mountain lake. I believe the town was Frisco. We pulled off for some pictures and cardio. At something over 9,000 feet, it was one of the highest points we’d experienced so far, and about the highest altitude I’ve ever been at. Jason convinced me to check out the effect of the altitude, so I took off for a jog about 100 yards down the parking area, looped around and came running back. The whole way running I felt pretty good; the breathing was working fine. When I pulled up to a stop, I was wheezing like nothing else. I thought I had just run clear from Denver. Jason, bastion of fitness and cardio that he is, pointed and laughed.
The driving through the Rockies was gorgeous. We passed several ski resorts that were exhibiting their summer coloring—that is had big green slopes down their sides. We passed Copper Mountain, Vail, and Eagle among other communities.
After a while you get somewhat accustomed to the American Alps appearance of the ski resort communities in the Rockies, but pretty soon after I got to that point we were driving uphill and we saw a sign ahead welcoming us to Utah. That was kind of a good feeling, like we were making progress. Then we crested the hill, came out of the mountains and saw an amazing, expansive view of the huge valley that we had just entered. You go from green mountains to desert with distant, desolate mountains and rocks in all directions. Some of the views are great, especially in the area of Arches Nat’l Park, which we drove near on I-70. We stopped at several scenic overlooks and got pictures. Many of them looked kind of like the Grand Canyon, or so I imagine. It took longer than planned to get through Utah, but we didn’t have a particular time to get to St. George, UT, where we were staying with John and Kristen Hunt.
You may have heard that there have been quite a number of fires burning out west this summer. We had heard a couple of days before driving in Utah that part of our path through the state had been recently blocked by one of the fires. In fact, Utah was currently experiencing the single largest fire in state history. The first evidence of fires we saw was along the side of I-70 in Utah. We drove up multiple cars worth of firefighting officials finishing putting out a fire that stretched for several hundred yards down the road. I speculated that it was from a cigarette butt or something. We could see multiple locations where the ground was still smoking and they were still using the hose on a section, though we didn’t see any flames.
We worked our way across Utah to I-15 in the middle of the state. Soon after getting on I-15 we saw where some of the wildfires had burned entire hillsides of foliage. There was a spot where the fire had jumped over I-15. We had heard that I-15 was closed in this area a couple of days prior, but fortunately it was open by that point. Along the way, we saw several other burnt areas and smoke coming out of the mountains to the west of I-15. We even saw a helicopter with the bucket underneath drop its contents onto the mountain below. I couldn’t see any flames there either, but it was a dramatic sight.
We finally arrived at John and Kristen Hunt’s house in Ivins, Utah, which is a small community a little outside of St. George, Utah. The drive was about 12.5 hours, which is the longest so far, but it wasn’t too bad a drive, with a lot of great sights to see along the way.
All for now, good night…
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Fourth Day: to Broomfield, CO
Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 12:05 am:
If I ever get around to blogging, the times of these things will be slightly off because I am marking the beginning of the writing, not the time that they are posted, but, oh well.
I don’t know if I would make a good blogger or not… I think I have good potential, because I think I can be a funny writer, but this particular subject and form—more of a travelogue—have so far not lent themselves to the type of concise and specific writing that I think make for more successful blogging. Ah well…
So, not to pick up too closely from where I left off (I wrote much of the last entry in the car mid-afternoon after writing down some keywords the night before) but we had a bowl of cereal with Greg Smith this past morning and then hit the road. We got going on I-70 West after needing a minute to get oriented on the roads. Jason took first shift, and drove til we ran out of gas. Or nearly so. This was our first introduction to how far apart gas stations can be west of the Mississippi. We are used to being able to gas up at any point every 5 miles or so going down the highway, and waiting until the tank is almost empty for maximum efficiency and minimum stops. Well, it almost cost us a several mile hike to the gas station early in the day. As the needle came near E and the light just came on, we bypassed a Gas-N-Go or something like that because we were hoping to find a stop that also had a Subway or some kind of deli sandwiches so that we could eat while we were on the road.
Well, as we continued west on I-70, we went further and further past a number of exits with no indication of gas options. We went past one exit in particular where we could look down and see a gas station just below the highway, and Jason lamented that there was no sign for that stop. As we drove by I noticed that there was no sign because that gas station was closed down. The needle crept lower and lower—eventually into that region you never want to see: touching the E line, completely covering the E line, dropping below the E line, so far below the E line that it’s no longer touching the E line. Finally we came upon the exit for Manhattan, KS, home of the dreaded Kansas State University, bitter rivals to KU, the team of my youth, Kansas University.
We had driven right past KU because we had a long drive ahead and would not have time to stop in Lawrence, where KU is located. But we were now in dire straits, and so we pulled off at the Manhattan exit, only to discover that Manhattan is actually 9 miles from the interstate. So with the needle threatening to fall off the gage, we dropped down to 55 miles an hour, supposedly the most fuel efficient speed, and limped into the first gas station we came to 9 miles down the road.
Finally safe from the indignity of having to walk from the interstate onto the K-State campus begging for help, we set off on the road, determined not to let this happen again. We began to realize that we will not be able to drive until the gas light comes on, but we did not have a hard and fast rule as to when we would gas up in the future.
We drove west on I-70 through Kansas, and we drove, and we drove. We had been told by multiple friends that driving through Kansas is flat, straight and impossibly dull. For much of the width of Kansas, we found it to be a little bit hilly, somewhat curvy and only a little boring. Plus, it was easy driving. The farther west we got in Kansas, we did experience that there are some stretches that are really straight, and it does get pretty boring, but it wasn’t that bad.
We hit the Colorado border and saw our first 75 MPH sign of the trip. It didn’t really change our driving habits, in that we didn’t drive any faster upon finding the sign, but it was novel. Eastern Colorado is a lot like western Kansas. I kept waiting to see the Rockies appear on the horizon, but it didn’t happen. Not for a long time, anyway. While it was a long day of driving, it really wasn’t that difficult, I would say.
I finally saw the first bit of the Rockies just a little bit outside of Denver. For whatever reason, I guess because it’s a “mile high,” I figured that Denver was in the middle of the mountains. We spoke to Dave Cunningham on the road that day and he told me that Denver is actually in front of the mountains, so I had a better idea of what to expect. I was underwhelmed at first, until I realized later that I was seeing what are really the foothills of the Rockies, known as the Flat Irons. We got into the Denver area around 5 pm and hit a little bit of Tuesday evening rush hour, but it was not bad at all.
We finally made it to Jason’s friends Michael and Becca’s house right around dinner time. They live in Broomfield, CO, which is basically in between Denver and Boulder. Michael was out of town, but we got to meet their two greyhounds, 4 year old female Skadi, who is named after the Norse goddess of the hunt, and 10 month old Ares, of course named after the Greek god of war. Skadi is a former race dog that was quite successful, but developed epilepsy and was retired. Michael and Becca saved Skadi, who is a very chill dog. They also rescued Ares, who was the runt of an 8 dog litter that had been mistreated. He’s still growing, and looks pretty thin, but it seems like he’s made great progress. It was amazing to watch the two play and run in the backyard. We didn’t get to see them really open it up and hit top speed, but they are so incredibly graceful and fluid animals. They seem like they are meant to run, and they seem to enjoy it in the backyard, but it is a shame that so many have to be saved from the dog racing industry.
After several huge meals in a row, we were still pretty stuffed, so we were relieved (at least I was) when Becca said she had a dinner salad for us to eat. It was made with lettuce, chicken, craisins, almonds, feta and/or gorgonzola, and a delicious homemade dressing which was made with mayo, a type of vinegar, sugar and poppy seeds. The salad was really good and we ate a lot of it, but I was still grateful for a lighter meal.
After dinner, Becca drove us into Boulder, and we checked out some of the neat areas of the campus area of Colorado University. We stopped at the Sink, a local university bar which was pretty cool. The walls were painted with murals of local culture, and the low ceiling was covered in graffiti. They had a great selection of Colorado microbrews on tap, and an impressive presence of college students for 8:30 pm on a Tuesday in July.
From there we walked down the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. We managed to dodge a quick rainstorm on the way there which left behind some real cool clouds and lightning in the evening sky. The Pearl Street really reminded Jason and I of the Downtown mall in Charlottesville, VA. From there we walked to a local Mexican restaurant that had really good margaritas that are made with apple juice and are strong enough that you are limited to three of them. Becca and Jason each had a small one and I had a full size margarita. Becca was driving, but I don’t remember what Jason’s excuse was.
We got back to Becca’s house and crashed for the night after a very fun time in the Denver/Boulder area. Goodnight…
If I ever get around to blogging, the times of these things will be slightly off because I am marking the beginning of the writing, not the time that they are posted, but, oh well.
I don’t know if I would make a good blogger or not… I think I have good potential, because I think I can be a funny writer, but this particular subject and form—more of a travelogue—have so far not lent themselves to the type of concise and specific writing that I think make for more successful blogging. Ah well…
So, not to pick up too closely from where I left off (I wrote much of the last entry in the car mid-afternoon after writing down some keywords the night before) but we had a bowl of cereal with Greg Smith this past morning and then hit the road. We got going on I-70 West after needing a minute to get oriented on the roads. Jason took first shift, and drove til we ran out of gas. Or nearly so. This was our first introduction to how far apart gas stations can be west of the Mississippi. We are used to being able to gas up at any point every 5 miles or so going down the highway, and waiting until the tank is almost empty for maximum efficiency and minimum stops. Well, it almost cost us a several mile hike to the gas station early in the day. As the needle came near E and the light just came on, we bypassed a Gas-N-Go or something like that because we were hoping to find a stop that also had a Subway or some kind of deli sandwiches so that we could eat while we were on the road.
Well, as we continued west on I-70, we went further and further past a number of exits with no indication of gas options. We went past one exit in particular where we could look down and see a gas station just below the highway, and Jason lamented that there was no sign for that stop. As we drove by I noticed that there was no sign because that gas station was closed down. The needle crept lower and lower—eventually into that region you never want to see: touching the E line, completely covering the E line, dropping below the E line, so far below the E line that it’s no longer touching the E line. Finally we came upon the exit for Manhattan, KS, home of the dreaded Kansas State University, bitter rivals to KU, the team of my youth, Kansas University.
We had driven right past KU because we had a long drive ahead and would not have time to stop in Lawrence, where KU is located. But we were now in dire straits, and so we pulled off at the Manhattan exit, only to discover that Manhattan is actually 9 miles from the interstate. So with the needle threatening to fall off the gage, we dropped down to 55 miles an hour, supposedly the most fuel efficient speed, and limped into the first gas station we came to 9 miles down the road.
Finally safe from the indignity of having to walk from the interstate onto the K-State campus begging for help, we set off on the road, determined not to let this happen again. We began to realize that we will not be able to drive until the gas light comes on, but we did not have a hard and fast rule as to when we would gas up in the future.
We drove west on I-70 through Kansas, and we drove, and we drove. We had been told by multiple friends that driving through Kansas is flat, straight and impossibly dull. For much of the width of Kansas, we found it to be a little bit hilly, somewhat curvy and only a little boring. Plus, it was easy driving. The farther west we got in Kansas, we did experience that there are some stretches that are really straight, and it does get pretty boring, but it wasn’t that bad.
We hit the Colorado border and saw our first 75 MPH sign of the trip. It didn’t really change our driving habits, in that we didn’t drive any faster upon finding the sign, but it was novel. Eastern Colorado is a lot like western Kansas. I kept waiting to see the Rockies appear on the horizon, but it didn’t happen. Not for a long time, anyway. While it was a long day of driving, it really wasn’t that difficult, I would say.
I finally saw the first bit of the Rockies just a little bit outside of Denver. For whatever reason, I guess because it’s a “mile high,” I figured that Denver was in the middle of the mountains. We spoke to Dave Cunningham on the road that day and he told me that Denver is actually in front of the mountains, so I had a better idea of what to expect. I was underwhelmed at first, until I realized later that I was seeing what are really the foothills of the Rockies, known as the Flat Irons. We got into the Denver area around 5 pm and hit a little bit of Tuesday evening rush hour, but it was not bad at all.
We finally made it to Jason’s friends Michael and Becca’s house right around dinner time. They live in Broomfield, CO, which is basically in between Denver and Boulder. Michael was out of town, but we got to meet their two greyhounds, 4 year old female Skadi, who is named after the Norse goddess of the hunt, and 10 month old Ares, of course named after the Greek god of war. Skadi is a former race dog that was quite successful, but developed epilepsy and was retired. Michael and Becca saved Skadi, who is a very chill dog. They also rescued Ares, who was the runt of an 8 dog litter that had been mistreated. He’s still growing, and looks pretty thin, but it seems like he’s made great progress. It was amazing to watch the two play and run in the backyard. We didn’t get to see them really open it up and hit top speed, but they are so incredibly graceful and fluid animals. They seem like they are meant to run, and they seem to enjoy it in the backyard, but it is a shame that so many have to be saved from the dog racing industry.
After several huge meals in a row, we were still pretty stuffed, so we were relieved (at least I was) when Becca said she had a dinner salad for us to eat. It was made with lettuce, chicken, craisins, almonds, feta and/or gorgonzola, and a delicious homemade dressing which was made with mayo, a type of vinegar, sugar and poppy seeds. The salad was really good and we ate a lot of it, but I was still grateful for a lighter meal.
After dinner, Becca drove us into Boulder, and we checked out some of the neat areas of the campus area of Colorado University. We stopped at the Sink, a local university bar which was pretty cool. The walls were painted with murals of local culture, and the low ceiling was covered in graffiti. They had a great selection of Colorado microbrews on tap, and an impressive presence of college students for 8:30 pm on a Tuesday in July.
From there we walked down the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. We managed to dodge a quick rainstorm on the way there which left behind some real cool clouds and lightning in the evening sky. The Pearl Street really reminded Jason and I of the Downtown mall in Charlottesville, VA. From there we walked to a local Mexican restaurant that had really good margaritas that are made with apple juice and are strong enough that you are limited to three of them. Becca and Jason each had a small one and I had a full size margarita. Becca was driving, but I don’t remember what Jason’s excuse was.
We got back to Becca’s house and crashed for the night after a very fun time in the Denver/Boulder area. Goodnight…
Third Day: to Kansas City, KS
Monday, July 9, 2007:
We are staying the night at Greg and Sandy Smith’s house in Kansas City. I had forgotten how generous Greg and his family are. Not only have they put us up for the night, but they took us out to Kokopelli, a Mexican restaurant nearby.
It was a great day in Kansas City for me. I think Jason for the most part was not terribly interested but was polite and went along for the ride. I acknowledged at one point that a lot of the things to see were “Hey, how about that?”-type items for everyone outside my family.
We got up early; Jason hit the treadmill; we both had breakfast and were on our way. Since we had stayed in Kingdom City the night before, we only had about 150 miles to go to get to KC. Along the way on the way into town I spoke to Greg and he recommended going to Bryant’s barbeque just east of KC. He told us it was a dive, and that’s about right, although they are quite proud of their founder, Arthur Bryant, who passed in 1982. There are a number of interesting historical pictures on the wall. You stand in line and order your sandwich or platter to a fellow through a hole in the (bulletproof?) glass. You can see the fireplace and chimney about 6 feet behind the glass. Jason and I didn’t get particularly close to what we ordered (me: pulled pork sandwich instead of the specialty: burnt ends sandwich, and Jason got a burnt ends and sliced pork combo sandwich instead of burnt ends/sausage) but we did really like what we got. Also, the sauces on the table were distinctively gritty or sandy, which was unusual but not bad once you put it on the meat. We got there early for lunch, so unfortunately I only ate about half of mine, but oh well.
From lunch we drove through one of the more interesting parts of town. There were several Church’s chicken sightings, as well as a Nails n Da’ Hood, Big D’s Liquor and several fried fish establishments. We eventually made it to Forest Hill cemetery. I was able to go into the office and get a map to the area of my grandparents burial plot. We drove by Satchel Paige’s burial island, which had a neat tombstone describing how he got the name Satchel (he was an excellent porter at Union Station in KC) and his 6 rules for living a long life such as: Don’t run anywhere, Don’t look behind you because someone is gaining on you, Don’t go out socializing and get into the bad juices and No red meat because it angers the blood. My grandparents are buried very near there. It took me awhile to find it but I finally did and it’s pretty cool because it is also my great-grandfather and great-grandmother in the same plot, and there are two evergreen trees marking the area on either side of the Robinson family tombstone. I spent a few minutes in contemplation and just as I was finishing and heading back to the car, it started sprinkling. Not so much rain that you speed up your walking any, but just enough to feel good on your face actually. After I got into the car and we pulled away from the plot, it really opened up. I felt grateful that I was able to spend a few minutes with my grandparents before the sky opened.
From the cemetery we were able to drive by Research Medical Center, which was where my grandfather was a top surgeon when it was Research Hospital. We then drove by my grandparents’ old house, which looked really good in a slate-blue color on the outside. Then I drove Jason by the Kansas City Country Club, where my dad used to ride his bike every day after school for a round of golf. Of course, in the process we crossed State Line Blvd, marking our official first entrance into Kansas.
I also wanted to drive by the Plaaaza (as opposed to the Plahhza you may have heard of in NYC). I didn’t remember exactly where it was, but found in my Aunt Judy’s email printout mention that a Plaaaza hotel was at the intersection of Ward Pkay and Wornall Road. So I found that intersection on the map and we drove down to it. That intersection was just some commercial buildings, and no Plaaaza or mall of any kind. At that point I realized that the two roads, which are essentially North-South parallel roads, also intersect to the North. So we finally found our way to the Plaaaza and saw some cool nice hotels and a lot of nice shopping, which I suppose most girls would like. We needed to find a Post Office to pick up some stamps for possible future postcards, so ended up going way north on Main St towards the downtown business district. Along the way we passed my grandparents’ old church, St. Paul’s Episcopal, which I remember going to a couple of times. We also made it to Union Station, which looks nice and saw a cool WWI memorial tower on top of a hill. In the midst of these travels, I was able to point out to Jason several fountains which are part of the coterie of fountains that are famous in KC. In fact, my family has a coffee table book of them.
At this point we called Greg and he was able to contact the current residents of 1015, Steve and Kate Hughes. Kate was there, so Jason and I were able to go over and take a quick look around the house. She was really nice. It was neat to see they have kept the spirit of the house largely the same. The laundry chute is still in use; the bedrooms look pretty much the same; each first floor room is being used for the same purpose. They did enlarge the kitchen by taking out the wall which created the butler’s pantry. The back stairs are exactly the same, as is the Master bedroom sitting room, which hasn’t been repainted. Also, Marie’s bedroom and bath on the third floor have not been changed at all yet. They took out the attic fan and put in central a/c, which allowed them to put back the old windows which had been there before the attic fan. It was a nice visit.
We then made it to over to Greg Smith’s house around 4 pm or so. He was so hospitable, and we sat out on the back porch, had a couple beers and caught up. Eventually his wife Sandy came home from work, his younger daughter and a friend came home and we went out to Kokopelli’s for Mexican. I wasn’t very hungry from the lunch and dinner the night before, but it was pretty good food.
On the way home from dinner, the Smiths dropped me off at my cousin-twice removed Dr. Art Robinson’s house. He is one of four brothers who are the first cousins of my grandfather. We had a very nice visit. He is the third of the brothers and the first two died at age 88. He’s 85 and told me that he has three years to go. He’s also been in the same house for 50 years come October. His younger brother is apparently around the corner. We just chatted and I shared about my plans and he was quite kind to invite me to any of his family events in Kansas City or Connecticut, where his branch of the family own several summer homes. I was able to walk to Greg’s from cousin Art’s. Along the way a red truck with several teenage boys drove by and asked me how to get to 68th St., which they were very near. I pointed them, and the next morning we noticed a half dozen houses that had been tp’ed. I feel partly responsible…but not too bad about it.
That’s all for the night, so Goodnight. (Finished in the car 7/10/07.)
We are staying the night at Greg and Sandy Smith’s house in Kansas City. I had forgotten how generous Greg and his family are. Not only have they put us up for the night, but they took us out to Kokopelli, a Mexican restaurant nearby.
It was a great day in Kansas City for me. I think Jason for the most part was not terribly interested but was polite and went along for the ride. I acknowledged at one point that a lot of the things to see were “Hey, how about that?”-type items for everyone outside my family.
We got up early; Jason hit the treadmill; we both had breakfast and were on our way. Since we had stayed in Kingdom City the night before, we only had about 150 miles to go to get to KC. Along the way on the way into town I spoke to Greg and he recommended going to Bryant’s barbeque just east of KC. He told us it was a dive, and that’s about right, although they are quite proud of their founder, Arthur Bryant, who passed in 1982. There are a number of interesting historical pictures on the wall. You stand in line and order your sandwich or platter to a fellow through a hole in the (bulletproof?) glass. You can see the fireplace and chimney about 6 feet behind the glass. Jason and I didn’t get particularly close to what we ordered (me: pulled pork sandwich instead of the specialty: burnt ends sandwich, and Jason got a burnt ends and sliced pork combo sandwich instead of burnt ends/sausage) but we did really like what we got. Also, the sauces on the table were distinctively gritty or sandy, which was unusual but not bad once you put it on the meat. We got there early for lunch, so unfortunately I only ate about half of mine, but oh well.
From lunch we drove through one of the more interesting parts of town. There were several Church’s chicken sightings, as well as a Nails n Da’ Hood, Big D’s Liquor and several fried fish establishments. We eventually made it to Forest Hill cemetery. I was able to go into the office and get a map to the area of my grandparents burial plot. We drove by Satchel Paige’s burial island, which had a neat tombstone describing how he got the name Satchel (he was an excellent porter at Union Station in KC) and his 6 rules for living a long life such as: Don’t run anywhere, Don’t look behind you because someone is gaining on you, Don’t go out socializing and get into the bad juices and No red meat because it angers the blood. My grandparents are buried very near there. It took me awhile to find it but I finally did and it’s pretty cool because it is also my great-grandfather and great-grandmother in the same plot, and there are two evergreen trees marking the area on either side of the Robinson family tombstone. I spent a few minutes in contemplation and just as I was finishing and heading back to the car, it started sprinkling. Not so much rain that you speed up your walking any, but just enough to feel good on your face actually. After I got into the car and we pulled away from the plot, it really opened up. I felt grateful that I was able to spend a few minutes with my grandparents before the sky opened.
From the cemetery we were able to drive by Research Medical Center, which was where my grandfather was a top surgeon when it was Research Hospital. We then drove by my grandparents’ old house, which looked really good in a slate-blue color on the outside. Then I drove Jason by the Kansas City Country Club, where my dad used to ride his bike every day after school for a round of golf. Of course, in the process we crossed State Line Blvd, marking our official first entrance into Kansas.
I also wanted to drive by the Plaaaza (as opposed to the Plahhza you may have heard of in NYC). I didn’t remember exactly where it was, but found in my Aunt Judy’s email printout mention that a Plaaaza hotel was at the intersection of Ward Pkay and Wornall Road. So I found that intersection on the map and we drove down to it. That intersection was just some commercial buildings, and no Plaaaza or mall of any kind. At that point I realized that the two roads, which are essentially North-South parallel roads, also intersect to the North. So we finally found our way to the Plaaaza and saw some cool nice hotels and a lot of nice shopping, which I suppose most girls would like. We needed to find a Post Office to pick up some stamps for possible future postcards, so ended up going way north on Main St towards the downtown business district. Along the way we passed my grandparents’ old church, St. Paul’s Episcopal, which I remember going to a couple of times. We also made it to Union Station, which looks nice and saw a cool WWI memorial tower on top of a hill. In the midst of these travels, I was able to point out to Jason several fountains which are part of the coterie of fountains that are famous in KC. In fact, my family has a coffee table book of them.
At this point we called Greg and he was able to contact the current residents of 1015, Steve and Kate Hughes. Kate was there, so Jason and I were able to go over and take a quick look around the house. She was really nice. It was neat to see they have kept the spirit of the house largely the same. The laundry chute is still in use; the bedrooms look pretty much the same; each first floor room is being used for the same purpose. They did enlarge the kitchen by taking out the wall which created the butler’s pantry. The back stairs are exactly the same, as is the Master bedroom sitting room, which hasn’t been repainted. Also, Marie’s bedroom and bath on the third floor have not been changed at all yet. They took out the attic fan and put in central a/c, which allowed them to put back the old windows which had been there before the attic fan. It was a nice visit.
We then made it to over to Greg Smith’s house around 4 pm or so. He was so hospitable, and we sat out on the back porch, had a couple beers and caught up. Eventually his wife Sandy came home from work, his younger daughter and a friend came home and we went out to Kokopelli’s for Mexican. I wasn’t very hungry from the lunch and dinner the night before, but it was pretty good food.
On the way home from dinner, the Smiths dropped me off at my cousin-twice removed Dr. Art Robinson’s house. He is one of four brothers who are the first cousins of my grandfather. We had a very nice visit. He is the third of the brothers and the first two died at age 88. He’s 85 and told me that he has three years to go. He’s also been in the same house for 50 years come October. His younger brother is apparently around the corner. We just chatted and I shared about my plans and he was quite kind to invite me to any of his family events in Kansas City or Connecticut, where his branch of the family own several summer homes. I was able to walk to Greg’s from cousin Art’s. Along the way a red truck with several teenage boys drove by and asked me how to get to 68th St., which they were very near. I pointed them, and the next morning we noticed a half dozen houses that had been tp’ed. I feel partly responsible…but not too bad about it.
That’s all for the night, so Goodnight. (Finished in the car 7/10/07.)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Second Day: through St. Louis to Kingdom City, MO
Monday, July 9, 2007, 12:10 am:
I am writing briefly on the night of the second day. I cannot sleep just yet, even though I am tired and stopped reading because I could not keep my eyes open. I am up not because of Jason’s snoring, which may yet be a problem this evening—we’ll see—but because I ate too much dinner and my stomach is still digesting.
We are stopped tonight at the Comfort Inn in Kingdom City, MO. I love this town name. It is right on I-70, the main road between St. Louis and KC, MO. We had a real good day of driving, with no real traffic problems and making good time the whole way. We left Kingsport, TN at around 9:40 am. We made a quick Sonic stop on the way out of town for chocolate cherry coke for Jason. Sonic is like one of those places in American Graffiti where you drive up to a parking space and a nice girl comes up and takes your order, and then brings it out to you and puts a tray on your car door, although we did the drive through equivalent of this. The only difference between the Sonic in Kingsport and the one in American Graffiti is that the girl is not wearing roller skates and instead has an impressive Tennessee twang.
We hit the road with Jason driving first and took I-81 to I-40 to Nashville, which has a lovely skyline from the Interstate. The football stadium is quite visible as are the highrises. Then we got on I-24 to I-57 to I-64 to St. Louis. Along the way, we stopped for gas and Jason switched to JK and we had a nice light lunch that Jason’s mom had packed of ham sandwiches and chips that we were able to eat without stopping. We had also had bacon and egg biscuits for breakfast, which means three really good meals in a row from Jason’s mom—Thanks! We stopped one other time along the way and Jason brought it home to St. Louis around 5 pm central time. One time zone down, two more to go.
We went to the arch and got in a few decent pictures. We were given a name of a bbq joint in St. Louis from Konlee, but they were closed on Sunday. While looking at the map trying to figure in which direction to head for viable dinner spots, a nice fellow came down the deserted downtown street we were on and offered helpful directions to a Bandana’s bbg restaurant, which appears to be a regional chain. Eventually we made it there for some decent bbq, even if the service took a while to get started. I wouldn’t say that it was as good as Red, Hot and Blue, but the meats and a couple of the sauces were pretty good. The St. Louis style ribs they offered were tender, but not particularly flavorful. One of the side dishes were the “famous” fried corn on the cobs, which Jason and I decided could only be famous (really infamous by our definition) by taking perfectly good corn cobs and making them more greasy and less tasty. After dinner, we decided from our position on the western outskirts of St. Louis to drive for another hour to make for an easy approach to and more time for Kansas City. Thus we have ended up in Kingdom City.
Along the way we decided to track state license plates. We recollected a handful we had seen yesterday, and started keeping track first thing today. I think we are already up to 37 states, with the shortages being New England, the Upper Plains and Rockies, Nevada, Alaska and Hawaii. We saw an Alaska plate while on foot at the arch, but Jason decided to be pure about it, so we’re only going to count plates seen while in the car. Also, semis and U-haul types don’t count. Try not to think about the fact that if you have ever played this game in your life, it was because your parents suggested it as a way for you and your siblings to keep from killing each other in the backseat. I am a little nervous of what our voluntarily playing this game on day 2 represents for our odds of not killing each other over 28 days.
Well, my digestion has proceeded nicely this evening, and I am going to make my first attempt of the trip to sleep in the same room as Jason. I am very cautiously optimistic.
Ok, time for bed. Goodnight…
I am writing briefly on the night of the second day. I cannot sleep just yet, even though I am tired and stopped reading because I could not keep my eyes open. I am up not because of Jason’s snoring, which may yet be a problem this evening—we’ll see—but because I ate too much dinner and my stomach is still digesting.
We are stopped tonight at the Comfort Inn in Kingdom City, MO. I love this town name. It is right on I-70, the main road between St. Louis and KC, MO. We had a real good day of driving, with no real traffic problems and making good time the whole way. We left Kingsport, TN at around 9:40 am. We made a quick Sonic stop on the way out of town for chocolate cherry coke for Jason. Sonic is like one of those places in American Graffiti where you drive up to a parking space and a nice girl comes up and takes your order, and then brings it out to you and puts a tray on your car door, although we did the drive through equivalent of this. The only difference between the Sonic in Kingsport and the one in American Graffiti is that the girl is not wearing roller skates and instead has an impressive Tennessee twang.
We hit the road with Jason driving first and took I-81 to I-40 to Nashville, which has a lovely skyline from the Interstate. The football stadium is quite visible as are the highrises. Then we got on I-24 to I-57 to I-64 to St. Louis. Along the way, we stopped for gas and Jason switched to JK and we had a nice light lunch that Jason’s mom had packed of ham sandwiches and chips that we were able to eat without stopping. We had also had bacon and egg biscuits for breakfast, which means three really good meals in a row from Jason’s mom—Thanks! We stopped one other time along the way and Jason brought it home to St. Louis around 5 pm central time. One time zone down, two more to go.
We went to the arch and got in a few decent pictures. We were given a name of a bbq joint in St. Louis from Konlee, but they were closed on Sunday. While looking at the map trying to figure in which direction to head for viable dinner spots, a nice fellow came down the deserted downtown street we were on and offered helpful directions to a Bandana’s bbg restaurant, which appears to be a regional chain. Eventually we made it there for some decent bbq, even if the service took a while to get started. I wouldn’t say that it was as good as Red, Hot and Blue, but the meats and a couple of the sauces were pretty good. The St. Louis style ribs they offered were tender, but not particularly flavorful. One of the side dishes were the “famous” fried corn on the cobs, which Jason and I decided could only be famous (really infamous by our definition) by taking perfectly good corn cobs and making them more greasy and less tasty. After dinner, we decided from our position on the western outskirts of St. Louis to drive for another hour to make for an easy approach to and more time for Kansas City. Thus we have ended up in Kingdom City.
Along the way we decided to track state license plates. We recollected a handful we had seen yesterday, and started keeping track first thing today. I think we are already up to 37 states, with the shortages being New England, the Upper Plains and Rockies, Nevada, Alaska and Hawaii. We saw an Alaska plate while on foot at the arch, but Jason decided to be pure about it, so we’re only going to count plates seen while in the car. Also, semis and U-haul types don’t count. Try not to think about the fact that if you have ever played this game in your life, it was because your parents suggested it as a way for you and your siblings to keep from killing each other in the backseat. I am a little nervous of what our voluntarily playing this game on day 2 represents for our odds of not killing each other over 28 days.
Well, my digestion has proceeded nicely this evening, and I am going to make my first attempt of the trip to sleep in the same room as Jason. I am very cautiously optimistic.
Ok, time for bed. Goodnight…
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
First Day: to Kingston, TN
Saturday, July 7, 2007, 11:55 pm:
End of the first night. Will need to flesh things out later. We have so much we’re trying to figure out how to do. Like, when we got to Jason’s mom’s house, we knew that we didn’t need to bring everything in, but we packed our basic clothes bags on the bottom, which made sense when we were packing the car before leaving, but was kind of a pain to unload. But not that much of a pain, and everything was packed in pretty tightly, with nothing sliding around and still good visibility out the back.
As I said, we are staying the first night at Jason’s mom’s house in Bristol, TN. We arrived a little before 7 pm. We left Piedmont St. at 1 pm this afternoon—a little later than originally planned, but not too bad as we still got in for a reasonable dinner time. We left so late for a few reasons. First, I had to sign my lease for my new apartment (Crystal Towers in Crystal City) with Mike Mikeska and Alex Kepler this morning after a hectic 4th of July week.
Before going to sign the lease, I briefly joined Mike and others at the Original Pancake House in Falls Church where 12 or so were gathered Jason for a goodbye breakfast of sorts. That started around 8:30, followed immediately by Mike and me heading straight to Crystal City. Then it took a pretty long time to get everything into its final packed location and then into the car. We also kept thinking of things to ask Dave (Cunningham, our other roommate) to do.
We hit the road at 1 pm. Forgot to take a beginning of the trip picture. We’ll have to take one in front of the car in the driveway of Jason’s mom’s house tomorrow. That’s still pretty close to the beginning. Everything about the first day feels kind of like it doesn’t count: roads we know, we’re pretty much just in VA still (more on that in a sec), generally still in comfort zones, it just feels like a trial run. I think by the time we get to St. Louis or so tomorrow night it’ll really start to hit. After a nine hour drive tomorrow, we’ll know if we’re going to make a good go of this whole trip.
The drive to Jason’s mom’s house was pretty uneventful. I took the first shift for about three hours from Arlington. We hit a little traffic on 66 early, but by Rte. 50 we were past it and cruising down 81. I switched out at 3 hrs, the halfway point. Jason drove the rest of the way, being more familiar with the drive. We made good time all day today once past that first hiccup. We hit the VA-TN border right around 6:30 if memory serves, though I forgot to get a picture of our first Welcome to… sign. I’ll endeavor to do better tomorrow. We also may start to keep track of license plates, although at the rate we were seeing them today, I think we’ll hit all 50 within 3 or 4 more days.
Jason’s mom and stepdad George have been so great. We had a great, what I was told was traditional East Tennessee country meal, with a bit of a Polish flair from George’s grilled sausages. Pinto beans with raw onion or Jason’s grandma’s chow chow relish, sliced potatoes, fresh sliced tomatoes with cottage cheese, cornbread, sweet tea with lemon, cole slaw (I passed) and chocolate pie for dessert (with a glass of milk to wash that down). All delicious and I am stuffed. A lovely first evening.
I’ve been at this a while now, and I will never keep this up for 28 days. But had to get some early thoughts down. I think I will try to do more of this while in the car. Only way to keep this up. Next task is to decide if to blog online or maybe just email it offline. I don’t want to spam people either though. Maybe that’s what makes blogging so powerful. Huh…
Goodnight….
End of the first night. Will need to flesh things out later. We have so much we’re trying to figure out how to do. Like, when we got to Jason’s mom’s house, we knew that we didn’t need to bring everything in, but we packed our basic clothes bags on the bottom, which made sense when we were packing the car before leaving, but was kind of a pain to unload. But not that much of a pain, and everything was packed in pretty tightly, with nothing sliding around and still good visibility out the back.
As I said, we are staying the first night at Jason’s mom’s house in Bristol, TN. We arrived a little before 7 pm. We left Piedmont St. at 1 pm this afternoon—a little later than originally planned, but not too bad as we still got in for a reasonable dinner time. We left so late for a few reasons. First, I had to sign my lease for my new apartment (Crystal Towers in Crystal City) with Mike Mikeska and Alex Kepler this morning after a hectic 4th of July week.
Before going to sign the lease, I briefly joined Mike and others at the Original Pancake House in Falls Church where 12 or so were gathered Jason for a goodbye breakfast of sorts. That started around 8:30, followed immediately by Mike and me heading straight to Crystal City. Then it took a pretty long time to get everything into its final packed location and then into the car. We also kept thinking of things to ask Dave (Cunningham, our other roommate) to do.
We hit the road at 1 pm. Forgot to take a beginning of the trip picture. We’ll have to take one in front of the car in the driveway of Jason’s mom’s house tomorrow. That’s still pretty close to the beginning. Everything about the first day feels kind of like it doesn’t count: roads we know, we’re pretty much just in VA still (more on that in a sec), generally still in comfort zones, it just feels like a trial run. I think by the time we get to St. Louis or so tomorrow night it’ll really start to hit. After a nine hour drive tomorrow, we’ll know if we’re going to make a good go of this whole trip.
The drive to Jason’s mom’s house was pretty uneventful. I took the first shift for about three hours from Arlington. We hit a little traffic on 66 early, but by Rte. 50 we were past it and cruising down 81. I switched out at 3 hrs, the halfway point. Jason drove the rest of the way, being more familiar with the drive. We made good time all day today once past that first hiccup. We hit the VA-TN border right around 6:30 if memory serves, though I forgot to get a picture of our first Welcome to… sign. I’ll endeavor to do better tomorrow. We also may start to keep track of license plates, although at the rate we were seeing them today, I think we’ll hit all 50 within 3 or 4 more days.
Jason’s mom and stepdad George have been so great. We had a great, what I was told was traditional East Tennessee country meal, with a bit of a Polish flair from George’s grilled sausages. Pinto beans with raw onion or Jason’s grandma’s chow chow relish, sliced potatoes, fresh sliced tomatoes with cottage cheese, cornbread, sweet tea with lemon, cole slaw (I passed) and chocolate pie for dessert (with a glass of milk to wash that down). All delicious and I am stuffed. A lovely first evening.
I’ve been at this a while now, and I will never keep this up for 28 days. But had to get some early thoughts down. I think I will try to do more of this while in the car. Only way to keep this up. Next task is to decide if to blog online or maybe just email it offline. I don’t want to spam people either though. Maybe that’s what makes blogging so powerful. Huh…
Goodnight….
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