Moving to California Part 2 - Ithaca to South Dakota

And the drive begins in earnest!  Let's do this thing!  First we shall visit a few friends in the Midwest, and then hit up some states that I've never been to before!


Friday 8/1/14 - Columbus
JORDAN.

Jess and I woke up at 7 to start heading down to Pittsburgh, driving through central PA.  The drive was fairly uneventful; we made it to Pittsburgh in 5.5 hours.  We found a really cool place to stop for lunch.  Oh wait.  I forgot about when we stopped at Sheetz, which is like the western PA equivalent of Wawa.  But definitely shittier.  For real.
Anyway, back to lunch.  We found a church converted into a brew pub.  I had a good Dunkel beer and a pulled pork hoagie.  The bar was gorgeous, and a lot like the converted church-to-bar in Portland, ME.  Unfortunately we had to head right to Ohio after lunch to meet up with Jordan.  I shall have to explore Pittsburgh more rigorously another day.  Cool thing on the drive is that we got to drive through West Virginia, which I think I've been to before, but now I definitely have.  And Jess and I have been viewing a serious number of state license plates.

The whole "church" thing didn't work out, but the brewery sure is.

Upon arriving in "beautiful" Columbus Ohiohio, I saw Jordan!  The first time in over a year!  And Raquel was there too!  It was a veritable reunion.  We went on down to "downtown" Columbus and got some dinner and drinks... and Jeni's ice cream, which is a famousy ice cream place there.  Super filling.

Living the Columbus lifestyle

That ice cream lasted approximately 5 seconds

We then went to a bar called 16-bit, which had awesome drinks with friggn popsicles in them and FREE arcade games!  The old awesome kind.  Like Turtles in Time and NFL Blitz 99.  What.  And then we walked to a park with free live music.  Kind of cool, Columbus!

These guys are amazing hosts and play a mean arcade game

Random free concert in the park

Then we went back to Jordan's for a few episodes of Archer.  Another early day tomorrow though - yay!


Caturday 8/2/14 - Chicago
Jess and I got up insanely early to start our drive to Chicago.  We had a schedule to keep: we were meeting up with Kyle and Amanda to go to Lollapalooza!  The drive was only 5.5 hours, and we took turns sleeping so it wasn't awful.  We also passed a huge wind farm in Indiana on the way, which I am always a big fan of because holy crap awesome.  Add two more states to our travels today.
We arrived around 10am, which turned out to be 9am with the time change.  Guess we didn't have to get up so early... Anyway it was good since we now had a chance to hang out with Beckett for a bit before heading over to Amanda's friend's apartment for a pregame party.  As a group we then headed over to Grant Park, the site of Lollapalooza and all the insanity that comes with it.  A lot like Bonnaroo with all the stages and food trucks, but way different against the backdrop of the huge city.  Very beautiful.  It also is missing that "camping" atmosphere since it's in the middle of the city, so you don't get that whole side of the event; it's more just about the music.  We spent the afternoon drinking beer (and water when available), eating, and going from stage to stage to try the different bands.
The bands we focused on were Kate Nash (kind of more rock than I was expecting), Fitz and the Tantrums (a TON of fun), Foster the People (also a lot of fun), unfortunately we missed Grouplove, but were able to see Head and the Heart as the Sun set over the skyline, and Calvin Harris's EDM stage at night.  That was a blast.  The fireworks and light show were really amazing with Chicago's skyscrapers behind it.

Thanks for the free energy brah

How is this your natural sitting position?

Ye Olde Pregame

Can we just talk about Kyle's amazing shirt?

Weeeeeeeee!

Fitz is over there somewhere

That tree was feasting on people all day

Earth's rotation makes for some pretty great scenery

That balloon has a great view of the stage

We have fun

Not a bad way to spend a day in Chicago

We wandered a bit after that, meandering by the Chicago Bean on our way back to Kyle and Amanda's place.  It was such a fun day.  You could tell because we were dirty as all hell and felt like our bones were broken.


Sunday 8/3/14 - Milwaukee to South Dakota
In retrospect, we probably should have gotten up earlier and left Chicago at a more reasonable time, but instead we slept in until 8am and Amanda and Kyle made us a delicious french toast and fruit breakfast.  We made the smart move of leaving the city immediately after that though.
The short 1.5 hour drive to Milwaukee, Wisconsin wasn't too bad.  We had a chance to briefly explore the riverwalk and grabbed a beer at River Street Brewery.  Milwaukee is known for their beers, so we had to at least try one.  By 1pm we were back on the road... for another 12 hours.  Holy shit that drive is long.  And flat.

Downtown Milwaukee in all it's glory

I don't know why but this picture sort of sums up my thoughts on Milwaukee

We drove through Wisconsin, over the Mississippi River into Iowa, where we stopped at a little National Monument called Effigy Mounds, which Indians had created hills in the shape of different animals.  Bummer we didn't have enough time to really explore it, but that's how it goes when you drive across the country sometimes.  Then we headed up to Minnesota, and then west into South Dakota.  Four new states for me.  All I can say is that they have cheap gas, have a lot of farms (and wind turbines!), and are flat as hell.  So flat, in fact, that my sister picked up a speeding ticket in Minnesota for not knowing how fast she was going.  Turns out that isn't the best excuse to tell a cop.  To be fair the speed limits were 75mph.
After the Sun set, we were still driving 300 miles through South Dakota.  Bugs were murdering themselves against my windshield.  We had to pull over just to clean them off.  Also because I was sleepy and wanted to switch drivers.  And the entire drive was accompanied by a beautiful thunder and lightning storm farther west.

Wind farms look badass and that is not an opinion, it is fact

This is Iowa

This is right about when Jess got pulled over for accidentally doing 90 in a 75 zone

Driving into the Badlands at night was absolutely gorgeous.  The prairie was lit up every few seconds by a brilliant flash of lightning and our headlights illuminated some of the rock formations, giving it a really spook look to the park.

So eerie driving into the Badlands

I'm so happy I booked a cabin beforehand.  We were both exhausted and didn't want to set up a tent in the dry lightning.  It was a really nice cabin too.  Aside from the flies everywhere, but it came with a pretty intense fly swatter.  Like... and industrial one.  Time for a well earned sleep in some nice beds.


Monday 8/4/14 - Badlands
Jess and I woke up in our cabin this morning... comfortably.  It was nice to be in a soft bed.  It might be our last in a while.  We quickly got ready for a mini hike near the east side of the park on the Notch trail.  As usual, the national park information overestimated this trail's difficulty.  We hiked to the lookout in half the estimated time.  It was a nice warmup through some interesting rock formations, and up a wooden ladder.  Some great views of the prairie valley at the top.

It kind of reminds me of Death Valley but with grass

Look at this artistic guy taking pictures!

It looks cooler than it actually was

Homesteader paradise.  Or not.

"I like the Badlands thiiiiis muuuuuch."

Before checking out of the cabin, we took one last shower in who knows how long.  Then we were off to see the rest of the park.  The road west was a fun drive and had a plethora of overlooks into the rock formations and prairie valleys.  We saw a few fossils from 30ish million years ago, some homesteader sites, and gorgeous scenery.  And despite a few rain drops this morning, the weather turned out to be damn good.  Stunning views.  However... there are way too many motorcyclists.  I think someone mentioned there was some motorcycle festival that just ended, so now the park is overrun by loud, inconsiderate assholes.
Heading towards Sage Creek campground, we came across some Prairie Dogs and a herd of Bison.  It was Jess's first time seeing Bison, and I think she enjoyed it.  They are some majestic motherfuckers.  We continued along the dirt road to our campground: a free, first-come-first-serve unattended plot of land.  Personally I hope we see some Bison come around here at some point.

I could romp around in there all day if I had the time

Stoic bastards

After relaxing at our campsite for a time and constructing our tent (it is fairly windy and the ground is resistant to stakes), we explored the area a bit and went to the nearby town of Wall.  This is a fairly popular tourist spot which contains an enormous "drug store," but what is a actually a really big country store.  And also a growling dinosaur lives there.

This is a real thing at Wall Drug

It loses some of the terror in the photograph

Hello... ladies

You, sir, are a fearless little fellow

Delicious

Then back into the park - we had to race against time to put the tarp on our tent before a storm comes in!  But not before seeing a few mountain goats on some nearby cliffs.  They started wondering fairly close to my car while I was taking pictures.  And then a hilarious Fenton-from-youtube occurrence panned out.  The goats bolted suddenly, being chased by a dog.  The dog's owner was chasing after the dog screaming "Pizza, come back!"  It was amazing.

Pizza is about to torment this poor guy

After cooking up some nice chili, we called it an early night before the Sun really set.  The sky was overcast, so there was no sunset to see; the sky just kind of got darker.  Plus our plan was to get up early for sunrise.


Tuesday 8/5/14 - Mt. Rushmore and Wind Cave
Our early wake up time was in vain; the sky was once again overcast.  But we did see some cool colors and a family of mountain goats up at Pinnacles overlook.  We then started our short drive to Mt. Rushmore.  It took maybe an hour and a half to get there, and we must have arrived right when the park opened.  There was nobody there.  It was great.  Seeing the presidential faces was... cool?  Inspiring?  Coolspiring?  I enjoyed it.  We walked a little trail to get closer, but by 8am we were prett much ready to proceed to Wind Cave National Park.

We did the thing!  See?

It's amazing that this natural rock formation exists

It was maybe half an hour away.  Super close.  Right when we arrived, we hopped onto the Fairgrounds Cave tour, an underground tour through the upper and middle levels of this extensive cave system.  It is evidently the 6th longest cave system in the world (what's been explored so far), and the most complicated in terms of criss-crossing chris-crossing tunnels and all that.  Unlike Carlsbad Caverns (stalactites and stalagmites) and Mammoth Caves (huge rooms), this cave's claim to fame is the boxwork rock formation, caused by limestone erosion, leaving calcite "boxes," which look really amazing.  The tour was a really fun opportunity to explore something new and learn a little bit.

Boxwork!

Moar boxwork

Das Valleyscheisse

After that, we found a campsite, set up our tent, and had a delectable sandwich for lunch.  And then set off to the outside portions of the park for a few quick hikes.  We went up to the highest ride in the park, overlooking the beautiful Black Hills covered in tall grass.  We also walked along a canyon, seeing buffalo and wild turkey.  We're taking a quick rest right meow, but the looming clouds are threatening any chance of additional adventures this afternoon.
So yeah, we mostly just hung out, made a HUGE fire, and played some cards.  And then went to bed super early.  Like 7:30pm.

Tennessee Road Trip Part 5: Bonnaroo to Boston

The grand finale (pretend there's one of those accent marks there ok thanks) to this extensive two-week road trip.  A bittersweet ending to a great adventure.

Mon. 6/17/13
The sounds of tent deconstruction woke us up early on Monday.  Which filled me with a nameless dread because we had to do the same.  Surprisingly, it wasn't as horrible as I initially assumed; within an hour we were all packed up and filling the car, which Scott had driven up to the tent-only area.  We said our tearful goodbyes to all the friends we had met and by 8:30 we were driving north toward Kentucky.
Five minutes after crossing the border into the eleventh state on our road trip, we stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast.  I ate more than humans are known to eat, including a crazy huge portion of hashbrowns.  Flushing toilets were a scary and foreign concept to me.  (So foreign, in fact, that I forgot to flush that first time.  Whoopsidaisy.)
We drove a little bit further to south-central Kentucky before entering Mammoth Caves National Park, our next destination.  Most activities in this park include taking part in some form of a guided cave tour into some section of the 400 mile long cave system.  What better way than to get started right away!  We first joined the "Historic Cave Tour," which is a short two-mile loop in an extremely wide cave segment.  This cave is enormous, and this portion was about 40 ft high and quite wide.  But there were also sections called "Fat Man's Misery," which required you to make some interesting twists and turns if you happened to be portly.

I've never been in a cave of this size before

Olde-timey graffiti is still graffiti

This cave is really dry, which meant no stalactites or stalagmites.  A lot different than Carlsbad Caverns.
The second tour we joined required a bus to take us five miles away to a different entrance - this one created by dynamite rather than natural causes.  This is the longest cave system in the world and we ended up seeing a combined three miles of it.  The temperature differences between the outside and in the caves was astounding.  Probably a 30 degree difference if not more.  It was the first time I used my sweatshirt on the trip other than a pillow.
This section of the cave was a bit different in that it had three distinct segments: one in which the cave was expanding and dripping water, one that was wider and drier, and a third section that reminded me of a quintessential "cave experience" with familiar cave geology like pillars, stalactites and stalagmites.  The Frozen Niagara, one such area, reminded me of Carlsbad Caverns.  Really cool stuff.

Caving Champions

Cave stuff

EVEN CAVIER STUFF

But the tour was only three quarters of a mile, so we were done and back on the bus pretty quickly.  People were asking the dumbest questions, like "when do the two hours start" as the guide was reading the government mandated rules.  Michelle got hilariously snarky, making comments that had me loling a bit too loudly and mentioning that cave monsters eat children.  She had slept a lot on the ride, but it appeared that she could use a bit more.
Back at camp, we set up the tent and Can Jam.  After two "defeats," Michelle and I destroyed Scott and Sarah when I JAMMED THE CRAP OUT OF THAT CAN.  We cooked dinner over a fire, which included ALL the rest of the food we had and two cases of beer.  It actually ended up being a lot of food.  Before I knew it I was exhausted and went to bed.  I followed through on my threat to steal Michelle's star pillow, since she failed to give me my sweatshirt pillow the previous night.  So I was having a great sleep with pillows and everything when Michelle wakes me up for her pillow back.  I said "let's wait on it."  She asked "when?" to which I honestly replied "when you forget about it."  And it worked.  I had that pillow for the entire night.

Tue. 6/18/13
It was pouring out when we woke up, so we decided to keep sleeping until it calmed down.  Scott, Sarah, and Michelle had all left things outside to dry... it seems to have had the opposite effect.  We saw a crapload of wild turkeys on our way out of the park, but we were so used to them at this point that we didn't even care.
We continued driving north through Kentucky until Cincinnati, crossing the river into Ohio.  It was here that I had the brilliant idea to have lunch at the Munich Beerhall recreation of Hofbrauhaus.  I've been there before during a week of training for work: it was delicious.  A liter of german beer and a bunch of bratwursts.  It was so good.  I let Scott drive the rest of the way for today.

They unfortunately don't have a larger size

JFK apparently was caught trying to steal one of these back in the day

Cincinnati over the river.  That place is pretty decent.

After a few more relatively uneventful hours in Ohio, we stopped near Columbus at Scott's parents' house.  A nice little farm house on a big plot of land with corn a-growin'.  We rode in the Mule around the property to see everything and then we spent the rest of the evening shooting clay pigeons with shotguns until dinner.  Good times.

Farm stuffs

THIS IS HOW I HUNT

Game Face

Scott's parents made us a lovely dinner and I took the first shower in like six days... the first real one, because the one at Bonnaroo barely counts.  Later at night I went out to look at the stars and fireflies out in the fields.  These are the normal fireflies that I'm used to seeing in PA.  Not as incredible as the Synchronous fireflies, but still amazing.  I probably stayed out there watching them and stargazing for half an hour.  At some point we went out for an unreasonable amount of ice cream and went to bed before an early morning.

Wed. 6/19/13
I think it was my dread of returning back to my normal life mixed with a few hiccups during the drive that put me into a sour mood.  Which is not how I want to end a great road trip.
The day started with a great breakfast provided by Scott's parents.  Today, however, we packed up two cars.  Scott is starting his new job that requires a car soon, so he's taking up his old Mustang.  This relieved some of the space issues we were having.  By 7:30 Michelle and I were driving Soup and Scott+Sarah were in the Mustang, heading out for a supposedly 13 hour drive to Boston.  We had walkie-talkies, codename Winterfell for Scott's car and Riverroon (the Robb accent on "Riverrun" is critical) for mine.
Most of the drive was fairly boring.  Driving across PA was beautiful; I had never been to that side of the state before.  Naturally we had to stop at Wawa near Scranton, where I proceeded to drop my hoagie.  No matter, I was given another for my folly.
The trouble hit right around New York.  Scott decided to get EZpass, so we went on ahead through the toll.  Some issue with the overpass had forced 20 cars to pull over to the side of the road, but I had no idea what the cause was at the time.  Scott found out for us.  Apparently there was some piece of something on the overpass just hanging out damaging cars like a boss.  I was lucky, but Scott's oil tank got destroyed.  Winterfell was taken out of commission by a bridge: kind of ironic.
We had to wait a few hours for the police report and for the tow trucks to finish with everyone else to come pick Scott's car up.  Luckily we had my car to fall back on and no one got stuck in NY.  So we all piled into Soup and continued on our merry way to Boston.  Two horrific bouts of traffic later and we finally made it, in only 16.5 hours.  So fun.  I didn't get to sleep until 1:30am.
Not a great way to end the road trip, but I think a round of Thorns and Roses would be a great way to put some perspective on it.  My thorn was definitely the fog in Shenandoah - we just couldn't see anything in the park: a 120 mile drive through a ping pong ball.  My rose was a tie between the insane synchronous firefly show and Paul McCartney singing Live and Let Die.  So epic.

Another successful road trip completed