The Long Road Home

Many of you readers have been wondering if I'm stuck in South Dakota. Luckily no - I was mostly driving all day and sleeping in generic Midwestern hotels beside the highway.

After leaving the granite heads I headed east on the most direct route back to New York, Interstate 80. This highway took me through Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Jersey. It was also the most congested interstate of them all, with millions of semi trucks, bad roads, construction ...

During the last couple days of my trip the weather got really hot in New York, over 100F. In the midwest, there were hurricanes, tsunamis and every other kind of torrential rainstorm. I pulled over for gas in Pennsylvania and a hurricane arrived just as I did, cutting off the power at the gas station and nearly blowing me and my car across the highway.


This was my last day on the road - 575 miles from Ohio to New York. Another storm slowed me down all through New Jersey, after dark. It was the most harrowing and stressful leg of the whole adventure, especially after driving 9 hours.

I finally pulled into my parking garage in Brooklyn Heights at 10pm on Tuesday June 10, 9,225 miles since my departure 31 days earlier.

Check back for final final stats and epilogue in a few days. I will have to find all my receipts for that.

Granite Heads

I expected the drive from Deadwood to Sioux Falls would be 385 miles of pretty much nothing. But after a few miles I started noticing rocks shaped like human heads sticking out of the black hills. I stopped to take a couple of pictures, then got out of there before things got any weirder.

South Dakota also seems to have the most kamikaze insects. Hopefully Sioux Falls has a carwash so I'll be able to see again. And a running trail .. all the fast food is killing me!

Big Sky!

There are lots of cops in big sky country. Don't believe it when everyone tells you you can drive as fast as you want in Montana. I've still avoided a ticket but had one really close call while setting a land-speed record.

Yellowstone is a huge park that would take a few days to see entirely, but in a few hours I saw a few wild things - bison, deer, Old Faithful.

For a cowboy town, Bozeman is sure bereft of cowboy boot stores. There is one place, Carter's, that makes custom boots if you need a presidential seal or Kansas jayhawk. But turnaround time is 4 months and I didn't want to hang around Bozeman that long.

For my next stop, I audibled when I noticed Deadwood is pretty close to Mount Rushmore. I was a big fan of the HBO series so I decided to stay there for a night. The road to South Dakota was bad and rain poured on me the whole time, but this did make for a spectacular rainbow on the side of the road. Actually two:


I did find boots in Billings, which was a relief because I figured I'd need them in Deadwood. As it turned out, Deadwood turned out to be pretty kitchy and there's a casino in every hotel/bar/restaurant. Next up: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and a big drive across South Dakota.

Blue Moose

Vancouver to Spokane was the most eventful leg of the trip. I drove eastward in Canada a while, through the Canadian rockies before turning south to Washington.

First stop for coffee was in Hope, BC at a place called Blue Moose. I decided to buy a souvenir Blue Moose hat, but the weird thing was that just after getting back on the highway I narrowly avoided smashing my car into a real moose crossing the highway. Maybe he didn't like my new hat.

The highway eventually turned into a wine trail so I stopped off at a couple wineries. One of them makes wine from organic fruits like pears, apples, and plums (no grapes) grown on the premises. Neat idea, so I bought some of their wine. I hope it still seems neat when get home and drink it.

Getting back into the US was a fiasco, as it usually is for me. My credentials couldn't be more suspicious, I guess: no job, driving from Brooklyn to western Canada just for kicks. So they ransacked my car, went through my pockets, and an hour later set me free.

Next is a quick stop in Spokane, then onto Montana for Yellowstone and new cowboy boots.

O! Canada!

Anne and I made the quick drive to Vancouver, only delayed 30 minutes at the border. At the hotel, Anne seemed scared of the resident wooden mountie. Or maybe she wasn't happy with the accommodations?

We spent the afternoon at the Cormacks' house, where they were having a cookout for a million neighbor kids.

Next morning, Anne and I went for a run around Stanley Park. The park is like a peninsula surrounded by water but we still managed to get off-track and had to walk a mile back to the hotel.

After dropping Anne at the airport, Mike agreed to entertain me the rest of the day. First, a tour of his boat the SS Ballymack. I noticed Mike keeps copies of The Joy of Cooking on the boat and at the house. A serious chef.


We took a drive up the mountain (where there is still snow) for a cool panoramic view of Vancouver.

Tomorrow it's back to the USA for me. I wonder if there will be any problems at the border?

Coffeetown USA

The drive from Portland to Seattle was mercifully short (refer to my previous post re: microbrews) so I had time for a little nap upon arrival. Last time I was in Seattle was with Dad and Sam about 20 years ago, and my most vivid memory was the Pike fish market and the weird and disgusting geoduck clams.

This time Anne arrived late Friday night and we went to the Mariners/Tigers game Saturday afternoon. Here she is wearing her Twins hat sitting inside the big novelty glove outside the stadium.


A few cool things happened at the game: one of the Mariners stole home, they closed the roof during the game because of rain, and we almost caught a foul ball or two. We were about 10 feet left of Ichiro's sweet spot.

Hot dog!

Postgame we zipped up the space needle, which is probably less impressive for New Yorkers but earned some blog real estate regardless.

Next stop: Canada. Eh?

Up the Cali Coast

California highway 1 winds slowly up the Pacific coast, right beside the beach and cliffs. Slow-going but pretty cool despite the overcast and chilly weather.

Taking Hwy 1 would require me to spend 2 full days driving to Portland so I arbitrarily picked Crescent City CA for a stopover. It turned out to be a quaint little town on the coast with a lighthouse and everything. In the morning I hiked up to the lighthouse only to find out the museum was closed so I went for a quick run beside the beach.

In the morning I hit the road for Portland. I pointed the GPS toward the Apple store so I could buy a replacement power cord for the laptop (one of my excuses for the lackadaisical blogging). Just a few miles out of Crescent City I stumbled upon a redwood forest where I went for an impromptu hike. The trees were enormous - I planted my camera in the ground so I could get in the shot.


Besides the great big vertical trees that everyone has seen in pictures, there are weird dead trees that have toppled over, trees growing on top of other dead trees, and trees winding around existing trees.

I finally got to Portland and met up with Bryan and Dave. Apparently there's a shortage of delicious microbrewed beer in the Pacific northwest, because we drank them as fast as we could. Thanks guys!

San Francisco

He did it! Sam broke the land speed record in the car (111 mph!). Here's what this historic moment looked like from the passenger seat:

Unfortunately for Sam this record would only hold up for a couple days. See the Key Stats section at right.

San Francisco was a ton of fun as always, catching up with old friends Lenka Drew Maikhanh Brad and Deva. Deva even took a few hours out of his busy workday to give me a 3-hour tennis lesson (or was it the other way around?).

We had a couple hours to do some shopping. I think Sam had his eye on the blue shirt in the window until he realized he was wearing the same shirt.

My last night in town, Deva/Brad/Maikhanh took me to Chinatown for some cheap eats and introduced me to 'The Chinese'. This is some sort of foul liquor that all patrons of the Buddha Bar have to try, like some unpleasant initiation.

I wasn't afraid. Brad was amused.


Next morning was time to get back on the road, solo for the first time since Dallas. I'll take Highway 1 because I hear it's the most picturesque route. Next stop Crescent City then Portland.

I've convinced Anne to fly across the country and meet me in Seattle on Friday. We're going to the Mariners game Saturday afternoon and drink as much coffee as we have time for. She'll come along as far as Vancouver then fly back to NY, and I'll start the return leg of my trip.

Vegas

Memorial Day weekend, and our hotel was hosting a night of UFC cage matches and a Police concert. Fight weekend meant thousands of musclebound dudes in tank tops and SUVs with bumper stickers saying things like 'my kid could choke out your honor student'. This didn't prevent me from playing countless hours of blackjack, though Tripp needed to escape to the room at least once for a window-nap.

Sam landed just after midnight Friday, flying in all the way from Paris. But like a champ he ignored his jetlag and stayed up with me to take the casino's money until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. After a nap we wandered around the strip just to see if it was day or night.

Sam wants to do the 575m drive from Vegas to San Francisco in one shot, so tomorrow we'll hit the road early and he'll try to break my car's maximum speed record somewhere in the desert.

Snow in Arizona

Our plan was to leave Flagstaff in time to buzz through the Grand Canyon and maybe Hoover Dam on the way to Las Vegas. But as soon as we hit the road the snowstorm started.


We drove in it for a few miles then agreed the little car wouldn't do very well in the storm, and neither of us wanted to drive 15mph all day. So we called an audible and diverted ourselves straight to the Hoover Dam. On the bright side, this would mean an earlier arrival in Vegas and more time to win money at blackjack.

Sure enough, it got sunny as we headed west for our Dam visit.

ZZ Top's rendition of 'Viva Las Vegas' was the best I could do to welcome Tripp back to town. Sam arrives tomorrow after Tripp flies back to Denver. Glad the airport is only about 25 feet from our hotel.

Utah's Red Rocks

If you ever get the chance to drive through southeastern Utah, don't miss it. This is the most amazing terrain I have ever seen - hundreds of miles of untouched red rocks and formations that seem like they belong on some other planet.

We did a quick hike in Arches National Park up to the 'Delicate Arch' (below). This is the one you see in all the Moab tourist literature. It's extremely cool in person, and you can climb up into the hole if you aren't worried about annoying the other tourists trying to take pictures.

Monument Valley is an area on the Utah/Arizona border used to simulate the old west in movies.

It was tough picking the photos for this post because all day we were looking at scenes like these.

One especially treacherous stretch of road over a mountain was a narrow two-lane gravel road that gave us a view down over a huge valley. It was a little terrifying but also awesome - and a great time to have a little car.

What a day. Tomorrow we're planning to visit the Grand Canyon on the way to Vegas, if the weather cooperates.

Colorado to Moab

I didn't know much about Moab, or Utah, but Tripp assured me the rock formations and other sights would be worth the trip. He also agreed to drive part of the way, so I could finally use my powers of reading in the passenger seat without getting carsick.

We opted for the scenic Loveland Pass route across the Rockies so we could take the following picture of me at the top:

The scenery got bigger and more beautiful as the hours passed. The temperature rose 40 degrees as we approached the desert and the highway eventually met up with the Colorado River. The Colorado flows down to the Grand Canyon, which we'll see in a few days.


The scenery has gotten increasingly spectacular and we still haven't seen much of Utah. I took the next photo from the car - there were dozens of equally cool views all along the way.

Tomorrow's plan is a scenic hike in Arches National Park in Moab, then a few more sites on the road to Arizona.

Mountain time

My mom and I headed out of Kansas early enough to give us plenty of time to hit all the quilt shops and souvenir stores on the way to the Denver airport. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and even coordinated pretty well with my friend Tripp, who I picked up there after dropping off my mom, the first passenger of my trip so far. We had a lot of fun and it will be especially boring the next time I have to drive a long way without a passenger.

Next on the schedule was the Rockies-Giants game at Coors Field, about a 5-minute walk from Tripp's trendy downtown Denver apartment. Finally, a baseball game! Our seats were behind home plate but only about 3 rows from the very top. There was a single row of purple seats just a few rows below us. I learned those seats designate the 5,280 feet (one mile) mark. So we sat more than a mile in the air to watch the game. No wonder I couldn't remember the rules for a double-switch pinch hit substitution.

Beth and another Denver friend Zach came along to watch the home team pull out a nailbiter victory. That's Zach on the left, Tripp hiding in the shade, and Beth taking the picture.

Tomorrow Tripp and I are heading out for Moab, Utah. He'll hopefully take a turn driving so I can take some pics out the window.

Kansas (because it's halfway to Denver)

After two much-needed two days of R&R in Texas it was time to hit the road again for 500 miles only to wind up in Kansas. I randomly picked Hays, Kansas as the destination because it's a little over halfway to Denver.

My mom volunteered to keep me company all the way to Denver. I thought it was a great idea - the only conditions: no backseat driving and I get to pick the music. And try to bring a tiny suitcase.

One highlight of today's trip was lunch in Norman, Oklahoma, where I went to college. There weren't any other highlights in Oklahoma, despite driving its entire width.

Kansas on the other hand was a barrel of laughs. Apparently there are no highway patrolmen there and even the rest areas have hilarious signs (it's worth reading - click the photo):

In between miles and miles of flat farmland we passed a farm of giant windmills.

Tomorrow we'll hit the road for Denver, another 350 miles. I'll trade my mom at the airport for Tripp.

Bugs

A mudbug is the same as a crawdad, crawfish, or crayfish - a little bottom-feeding crustacean that looks like a tiny lobster. They taste sort of like lobsters too, after you pull the head off, dump out the green (or orange) slime and pull the meat out. I think people call them 'mudbugs' to creep out people who have never tried them.

I was invited to the Texas A&M alumni crawfish boil in Dallas by my friend Jody, who despite being a Texas alum is a friendly dude and socializes with Aggies. Jody is the one in the hat. Interestingly, his was the only cowboy out of 500 Texans standing for hours in the blazing sun. On the right is Mitch, our Aggie link to this shindig.


The bugs were served up in a styro box with a potato and corn on the cob. Since the restaurant patio was beside a pond, we were able to throw the heads right into the water.

Next: Kansas .. with a very special guest co-pilot

Texas!

I got up early Thursday because I knew Elvis was waiting. And since Graceland was on my way out of town, how could I resist? I took the guided tour of his house and visited the museum filled with his wild stage costumes and gold records. Later, on the news, I learned that he earned $60 million last year just by being dead. Not bad for a guy who only lived to be 42. I better get started..

Leaving Graceland I started my longest mileage day yet, all the way to my folks' place in Denton, Texas. Unfortunately most the trip was consumed by the state of Arkansas. No offense - just nothing to see from the interstate. I even drove right on past Hope without stopping at the Bill Clinton birthplace attraction.

This morning I treated the car to its first washdown of the trip, old-school style, with the water cannon and sponge.

It's great staying with family for a couple of nights and also the free lodging and laundry service. I even got to visit my friend Thom in Dallas for tex-mex, and my parents took me out for barbecue. It's good to be eating in Texas again.

Tomorrow: mudbugs

Pianos & Blues in Tennessee

Today was all Tennessee. The drive on I-40 from Nashville is quick and uninteresting so I did the tourist stuff in the morning before driving to Memphis.

Across from the hotel was the country music hall of fame. The museum was actually pretty cool, and also resembles a piano. See it?

Inside, I learned that Elvis had a gold-plated piano. I didn't even know that Elvis played the piano. I wonder if he thought this would get him more chicks. I guess I'll learn that and more tomorrow at Graceland.


Three things I wanted to see in Memphis: ribs, blues, Elvis. I got here in reasonably good time so I liked my chances. First: ribs at Blues City Cafe. Success!

Beale Street reminds me of Broadway Ave in Nashville or 6th Street in Austin. The street's blocked off and there are nothing but bar/restaurants and souvenir shops. The difference is that Memphis music is much better than in Nashville, and more country/bluegrassy than Austin. All three cities offer Shiner Bock if you need it.

This band (also at Blue City Cafe) was great - and the the bassist has a very strong neck.

Tomorrow: Elvis