Liveblogging: Arrived in Vegas!

After 3286 miles, we have reached the end of our journey safely. We are at New York, New York. Time for rest and victuals.

Liveblogging: 3000 Miles In!

3000 miles driven on the Vegas trail so far. 288 more until Vegas. Currently, passing through Richfield, Utah.

Liveblogging: Utah

In Utah, around 430 miles from Vegas. Lunch today is at Arby's in 20 miles because the next rest stop is over 120 miles away. Good eating. There are even less cars on this highway in Utah than in South Dakota.

Liveblogging: Vail

Just passed Vail. Around 650 miles to Vegas.

Liveblogging: on the road to Vegas

Just left Denver. Over 750 miles to go until Vegas. This seemed like a better idea at the time.

Liveblogging: Denver

The Vegas Trail: Day 6 Summary

We've reached Denver! Not much more to note other than that the high altitude really does affect you. I really noticed it when swimming in the hotel pool. Tomorrow is the 700+ mile trip to Vegas and the end of the trail. I also learned that I will be visiting CA after the trip until Thursday, so perhaps it is time to settle out West.

Scenic Mount Rushmore

A Cave in Mt Rushmore

Pizza in Lusk, WY. Population: 1200

The Apocalypse in Cheyenne, WY?

Trip Summary
South Dakota to Denver

Tomorrow's Itinerary
To Vegas. The end of the driving portion of the trip.

Morale
Generally good. However, tempered by the fact that the trip is more than half over.

Rations
300 bullets. Spare Yoke. Nutrigrain bars. Cheetos and Doritos.

Day 6 Trip

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Liveblogging: Mount Rushmore and Denver

Went to Mt Rushmore (as seen on National Treasure 2) early in the morning. Impressive, but I think the moden age has jaded me to the wonders of the Mount.

South Dakota and Wyoming are pretty deserted. We passed by the town of Lost Springs, WY with a population of 1. For lunch, we went to a pizza place in Lark, Wy which was surprisingly pricey.

Then it was an uneventful trip to Denver. Dinner today is at the Berlin Cafe. Today is the first day we haven't eaten at a chain restaurant. Which means its McDs and Burger King tomorrow.

LiveBlogging: Badlands and Trip Summary

The Vegas Trail: Day 3, 4 and 5 Summary

Made it to Rapid City, SD. Who knew that South Dakota was filled with roadside attractions such as Wall Drug (advertised for over 200 miles on I-90 - basically, a giant souvenir store), 1880 town, and the movie props from Dances with Wolves?

South Dakota is incredibly flat. The prairie stretches forever. I think I might have agoraphobia - the fear of wide, open spaces. There were times I thought I would drop off the edge of the world.

The highlight of South Dakota was the Badlands, sort of a mini Grand Canyon. Very scenic. We arrived late to Rapid City and had a hearty dinner at Olive Garden. Or as The Onion puts it, the 3 time winner of Minnesota's best Italian restaurant.

Random Roadtrip Tidbits
-Mount Rushmore is advertised as the place where they filmed the end of National Treasure 2
-South Dakota's nickname is "The Mount Rushmore State." Very creative
-It's very windy out here

In Chicago

Hustled by Trung at poker

It's been a long trip

Morale improves in MN

Exciting Twins game

Preview of the future

Hearty breakfast at McD. Notice the amusement park in the background

Unitentional comedy

Unitentional? Probably inappropriate

Wide open spaces

The Badlands

What's that?

Dusk at the Badlands

Sunset at the Badlands

Ending the day at Olive Garden

Trip Summary
Monday: Chicago to Minneapolis
Tuesday: Minneapolis to Rapid City, South Dakota
Over 2000 miles traveled so far.

Tomorrow's Itinerary
To Mount Rushmore in the morning. Then to Denver.

Morale
Improved after the Badlands. However, dreading the realization that the trip is almost halfway done.

Rations
300 bullets. Spare yoke. Nutrigrain bars. Out of Fruit Gushers though. Half a bottle of Pinot Noir purchased from Target.


Day 5 Trip

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Day 4 Trip

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Day 3 Trip

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Liveblogging: on the road

Still in Minnesota with over 350 miles to go until Rapid City, SD. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Eating at the Chit Chat family restaurant in Luverne MN. We'll see in an hour if this is one of those things where we'll say "it seemed like a good idea at the time."

The road ahead is long. Still around 1500 miles on our journey. Need more road trip games. Morale is low.

Liveblogging: to South Dakota

Wow, the directions say 500 miles on I-90 W. Maybe this roadtrip was a bit too ambitious.

Liveblogging: Mall of America

Currently in line at the McDonald's in the Mall of America - a mall so big it has an amusement park in it. Everything is bigger and wider in the Midwest - malls, streets, people.

I imagne the scene at 9am here would resemble a post-apocalyptic America - except that the storefronts are in good condition.

Liveblogging: Twins game

Apparently, the Twins are in 1st place in their division, though you would never know from the stadium. Being from Boston, I've never been to a baseball game that wasn't sold out, so it's a bit of a disconcerting experience.

Liveblogging: Minnesota

Wisconsin was uneventful. Now we're in Minnesota, home of the Twins and 3M. Hotwire is pretty sweet. Got rooms in the Hilton for less than half the median rate.

Eating at an Indian place (Bombay Bistro) then off to a pointless Twins game against the A's. The primary reason was because there's very little to do on.a Monday nght in Minnesota. And also because the seats were cheap ($7). Out tickets in the section area literally say "Cheap seat." Expectations are high.

Liveblogging: Wisconsin

Left Chicago this morning to head out to Minnesota. Currently, in Wisconsin the land of cheese. JZ had a bout with dysentary - morale is low. Looks like we have a case of the Monday's.

Liveblogging: Chicago

Chicago is like a smaller, cleaner version of New York. There was apparently an air show this weekend. We saw the Dark Knight, then ate at Niu for dinner. This is the first restaurant we ate at this trip that didn't end in an apostrophe s (prior restaurants were McDonald's, Wendy's, Chilli's, Denny's, Arby's)

We met up with a friendly local (Trung) who proceeded to hustle us in a game of poker. After visitng Chicago and Indiana, I can better appreciate the wide open spaces of the Midwest and why the settlers of old ventured out here. Tomorrow, it's on to Minnesota.

Liveblogging: chicago

We have entered Chicago, a beacon of light in the Midwest

Liveblogging: early morning run

Got up early today for an early morning run with SCheng who thinks that Indiana is a bucolic paradise despite being ecologically unsustainable. He can see the appeal. Despite being a banker, the hours and lifestyle have not made him fat and lazy and he proceeded to waste me in the 100m dash.

Apparently, Bob Evans is popular out in the Midwest and South. Unfortunately, the one out here has been closed so morale has been damaged. Perhaps irrepairably.

LiveBlogging: Indiana

The Vegas Trail: Day 2 Summary

Breakfast at McD's

Early morning nap for the big E

Lunch at Arby's

We found water!


Eating good in the neighborhood.

Prepared for the Apocalypse. Peanut butter is apparently good for 2 years.

Rations for the trip ahead. Beats hunting bears.

Trip Summary
Miles traveled today: 725 miles from NY to Indiana

Tomorrow's Itinerary
Indiana to Chicago

Morale
Improved markedly. The Chilli's helped.

Rations
300 bullets. Spare yoke. 30 jars of peanut butter, Ho Ho's, Nutrigrain grain bars, Cheetos, HiC, and a bottle of Pinoit Noir in a paper bag. Suffice it to say, we're stocked well for the upcoming trip.

Today's Trip:

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Liveblogging: Indiana

We made it through Ohio without incident and now we have arrived at JZ's place in Indiana.

To summon David Brooks, we are in a prototypical exurb with new housing developments, strip malls, and Applebees.

JZ's place is palatial, befitting his name. Currently, we are at the local Chilli's reliving our collegiate days. Morale has improved a lot since the morning.

Liveblogging: food

Lunch at Arby's. I wonder about our health during this trip. The settlers of old worried about starvation - we have the opposite problem. The places we have eaten so far:

Wendy's
Starbucks
Patsy's Pizza
McDonald's / Dunkin Donuts
Arby's

The plan for dinner tonight is Chilli's. Good eating in the neighborhood.

We're currently in West Virginia. Maybe we should buy some guns at the local Walmart. It would help in bear hunting.

Liveblogging: on the road

Made it through NYC. We stopped to feed the oxen at a Hess and now we're on our way through Pennsylvannia. SCheng is offended at all the billboards promoting clean coal. Apparently, clean coal is a long ways away.

Next up: lunch at Arby's

Hating on Michael Phelps

Taking a break from liveblogging the road trip to hate on Michael Phelps. Actually, to hate on all the adulation the media is showering on him. Ok, we get it - the dude is an awesome swimmer - can we move on now?

This morning on the news, they were discussing Phelps' narrow victory in the 100m fly. The way they were talking about it, you would think the guy cured cancer. At one point, the news anchor said something to the effect of "If you're depressed, just think of Michael Phelps' victory - that's what we do." We then switched the channel to ESPN where they somehow managed to bring up Michael Phelps in every segment. The sidebar on the right would say that the subject was basketball, but somehow the piece was on Phelps' relationship with the team. Luckily we left before the biopic on Phelps' greatness.

Let's get some f'ing perspective here people - the dude won a swim race - that's it. Sure it takes a ton of training, pressure of the moment blah blah yadda yadda. It doesn't change the fact that it's still just a swim race.

And while we're on this, the whole thing about going for 8 golds - well that's just because there are so many goddamn events in swimming. Why the hell are there even "butterfly" races in the first place? We don't have inferior stride races in track and field events, do we?

When you see how hard it takes for some medals (basketball, tennis, baseball), it just makes this 8 medal hubbub seem even more ridiculous. For basketball, they have to play a round robin tourney, then go through single elimination. At the end of Phelps' run, he would have spent a grand total of what, like 30 minutes in the pool? And it's not like they have medal events in full-court bball, half-court bball, 1 on 1, 3 on 3, 30 min bball and 60 min bball. There should just be two swimming events - long distance and short and enough of this stroke b.s. Front crawl is the fastest, so stop using inferior strokes!

I hope you enjoyed this edition of haterade. Now back to our regularly scheduled liveblogging.

Morale remains low

A questionable night's sleep has left morale low.

Your intrepid narrator attempted to sleep on the floor, only to be viciously attacked by mites. Such is the squalor of New York unless one is willing to pay an arm and a leg for a reputable inn.

In retrospect, we shouldn't have been so goddamn cheap. Hopefully, we won't steer the oxen off the side of the road this morning.

LiveBlogging: Rain!

The Vegas Trail: Day 1

The journey begins.

Our journey began well. Causeman and I visited the local Hertz in the morning to bargain for an oxen and cart. After a long wait, we managed to secure a good deal on a Toyota Sienna, whom we have affectionately named Biff. We were please with the size of Biff - roomy and spacious.

Biff


We then picked up the Big E, and after a stop at the local saloon, we were on our way West to New York where SCheng would join us.

The local saloon


We found a trail helpfully labeled I-90 West: To New York City, and we were off to the races.

Unfortunately, inclement weather struck in the form of torrential downpours. Somehow, we were able to survive, and 4 hours later (after a stop at an exotic watering hole called Starbucks), we entered the great state of New York.

And that's when disaster struck. The oxen were backed up for miles and miles on CT-15 South.


We were 1.5 miles away from our exit when we encountered the jam. And 2 hours later, we were 0.7 miles away from the exit. We had to take a detour, but with the aid of our guide, Garmin, we were able to find our way downtown to meet SCheng. We had planned on arriving at 6:11pm, but because of the delays, we ended up arriving at 9:30pm.

The long journey sapped our morale and strength, but upon arrival, we met with some friendly locals and feasted on victuals.



The late hour forced us to take up lodging in New York City, the cesspool of corruption and humanity. Quarters are tight, but we remain hopeful for tomorrow.



The Trip So Far
Boston to New York. Time traveled: 7 hours.

Tomorrow's Itinerary
New York to Indiana

Morale
Beaten down, but not defeated.

Rations
300 bullets. Spare Yoke. Biff. And left over pizza.

LiveBlogging: The Great American RoadTrip

The Vegas Trail: Day 0

Preface: The Northeast is a cesspool of liberalism and taxes.

Sick of the bad weather, nattering nabobs of negativity, and Ivy League colleges, we have decided to venture out West to seek a better life in more fertile grounds. And what is more fertile than a desert in the middle of Nevada?

Thus, today begins our 7 day trip to the frontier of Las Vegas, where greener pastures await, along with the promise of fortune and fair ladies.

Introducing The Adventurers:
R Dub: your humble narrator, a corporate raider by trade.
J Cause: an engineer. His skills will come in handy on our journey.
The Big E: a lawyer. He will need to transition from respecting the law of man to the law of the land.
S Cheng: a New York investment banker. How will he adapt to the provincial ways of the natives in the MidWest?
JZ: arbitrageur. How will he handle the risks of the road?

Itinerary
Later this morning, we will see the horse trader to find a mighty steed. Hopefully, it will be a Toyota Sienna.

Morale
High. Adventure calls. As someone once said, "Go West, young man." We heed thy call, nameless person with a famous quote.

Rations
300 bullets. Spare yoke. Ramen.


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