Author Topic: Road Trips  (Read 4254 times)

Offline Scott

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Road Trips
« on: April 17, 2003, 04:03 PM »
Ever gone Road Tripping?

I've been on three major ones...

#1 Spring Break in high school, me and three buddies piled into a 85 Mustang and drove from Minnesota to Oregon and California and then back in 10 days!  It was one of those coming of age times of my life.

Disasters

I'm 6'4", sadly I was not the tallest guy on the trip so I had to cram into the back seat, the whole friggin time.  

We piled all of our gear in motorcycle trailer, the tire blew up in the middle of North Dakota.  We then spent almost a full day trying to find a spare.  We found the exact tire on a toy tractor at a John Deere dealership, the dude wouldn't sell it to us, so we rigged something up with a wheel barrow tire.  That got us to the middle of Montana where

The whole axle disintigrated on the trailer.  Being dumb high school kids we didn't think about one tire being smaller than the other so we had to abandon the trailer on the side of the interstate and go back into Glendive, MT and buy a whole new trailer.  We tied the old one on top of the new one.

While we were in Glendive we gassed up and headed out, forgetting to pay for the gas and proceeded to get pulled over.  The cop was pretty understanding and made us go back and pay, it was an honest mistake

In Oregon we wanted to go see Crater Lake, heard it was gorgeous yadda yadda so we took the highway from the Interstate to the Park.  Turns out a logging truck tipped over and the whole highway was blocked, so we decided to go off on a logging trail and camp.  Well, being in Oregon in the spring means that it usually is pretty wet, yep it started pouring in the middle of the night so we packed up and drove into the next town past the logging road exit and slept in the car overnight

Well, we made it up to Crater Lake that morning and come to find out that they get ungodly amounts of snow (like 100 feet plus) and the snow banks were well above 12' still.  All access to the park was pretty much closed so we couldn't go even see the lake.  

So, we decided we wanted to see Redwoods.  And for some still unknown reason we didn't want to go to the Redwood National Park instead we headed toward Eureka, CA from the main interstate.  I am not sure what highway this is but it is listed as National Scenic Highway cutting through some pretty cool mountains on the way to HWY 1 on the coast.  It took us a good 12 hours to wind our way within an hour of Eureka when we get to a point where a huge sign says, road closed due to landslide.  It was like 9PM and the people said that during the course of the day the landslide happened, you could go back to the interstate (12 hours) or try one of the side roads.  It was dark, we were from flatland, tired and wanted to get to Eureka, so we elected to go for the side road.  This was one of the scariest trips of my life as it hugged mountain sides with what looked like frequent landslides with no real guardrails on almost sheer cliffs.  We did make it into Eureka, at like 6 AM the next day.  It was a bad couple of days.

So we got to the ocean and Eureka (never really saw the Redwoods?) and screwed around there and realized we had to get home in like 3 days for school.  So that afternoon we took the Mustang out on the beach and proceeded to we believe blow out one of the cylinders on the car.  

That pretty much limited us to driving no more than 60 MPH the whole way home...and we drove almost straight through because it is a long ass way from California to Minnesota.  The whole cylinder thing sucked ass because If I remember it took us almost 24 hours to cross South Dakota and back home which is usually a 10 hour trip.  

It was a ton of fun and like I said something I'll never ever forget.  We met up with some of our girl friends from High School in Portland (they went to Seattle) and hung out with them.  They gave us three tapes (we only brought 3 and all were Guns N' Roses :)) some unknown band called Pearl Jam.  They also gave us a Nirvana tape who I was pretty familiar with having hung out with the Stoners in the back of the gorcery store we all worked at.  The first time I really got drunk, the first time I was away from home on my own, the first time seeing the Pacific Ocean...it will always be one of the best times of my life and I won't ever forget what I saw, who I was with and what I did.  It was great.

More later :-*
« Last Edit: April 17, 2003, 04:11 PM by OCB »

Offline JediMAC

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2003, 07:25 PM »
Bright bunch of guys, weren't you?!   :P  Wheel barrow tire...   ::)

Road trips, huh...?  Not sure if I've been on any LONG distance ones like what you just described there Scott (other than as a kid with my family), but over the past 15 years me and "the fellas" made more than a few trips out to Vegas, up to the Bay Area, down to San Diego, etc.  Mostly 5-10 hour journeys each way, but usually bookending weekends or longer full of mischief, trouble, stupidity, and all around good times.   :)

Last trip was a couple years ago when a bunch of us drove out to Las Vegas for 5 days for my Bachelor Party!!!  Ah, dems was good times...  Don't remember much of it, but the boys tell me it was a blast!   8)  I seem to remember getting kicked out of several casinos though and seeing "a few" naked body parts if I recall.   :P   But I won't get into the gory and insane details here...

But it just don't get any better than the male bonding that occurs during the wild out of town trips with the boys...  (starts reminiscing of the old days  :'()

Offline Scott

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2003, 05:55 PM »
Road Trip #2

Me and my College Buddy and his Girlfriend drove out to Bozeman, Montana to visit another College Buddy who was working at Montana State for the summer.  We piled all of our pop and crap into a big cooler and left to pick up the girlfriend at the hospital she worked at.  The first turn we went around a cooler we had loaded all of our beverages and meat into flipped over and spilled icey water all over the back seat.  Luckily for me I got to ride in the front seat most of the way!  We hit a huge skunk somewhere in North Dakota which wasn't too cool but it wasn't too bad either.  We drove through the night and made it Bozeman at around noon.

I will always remember dawn in the Badlands of North Dakota, while coming over some Large Hills and seeing the sun illuminate the terrain while a thunderstorm approached from the west.  I was driving so I was the only one awake

The first day we kind of just screwed around in town and went to the local watering hole and sampled some of the fine Montana micro brews (inlcuding Moose Drool which was awesome).  It is kind of a strange town with many super liberals Greenpeace types and super conservative Rancher types which clash often.  It borders some really awesome mountains though which was part of the reason we went

The next day we climbed a mountain, Hyalite Peak.  It wasn't difficult at all, but it was a very long hike and having come from Flatland it was rather taxing altitude wise.  I think the peak was around 10,300 ft and we started around 7000 and total was around 15 miles round trip.  It was an awesome feeling to hit the top though.  Sitting there and looking around 360 degrees and seeing nothing higher and huge valleys below.  The sense of accomplishment and awe at Mother Nature was really moving. There is a little book that you sign at the top.  

My buddy also had alterior motives and proposed to his girlfriend at the summit while me and buddy #2 were walking around the other side.  They are having a baby next month so things have went well for them (they are featured in Road Trip #3 stay tuned)  The return hike was hell though, we all had blisters and a touch of altitude sickness.  We almost got caught in storm too but we made it down.  We drove into town and went to Applebees which was having all you can eat Riblet day.  Lets jsut say there were lots of Riblets eaten.  That was one of the most memorable days of my life!

The next day we drove from Bozeman back to Yellowstone and camped there.  I had been there when I was around 10, this time around though I really appreciated it a ton more.  The wildlife, the scenery, the natural wonders and geysers and hot springs.  I cannot recommend a vacation destination any more than Yellowstone.  It truly is the most awesome place in America.  The night we camped it reached a balmy 20 F and we froze our behinds off.  

On the way back to Bozeman to drop buddy #1 off we swam in a hot springs river.  The shoes I was wearing (very sharp rocks in the rivers out there) still smell like sulfur (they are my lawn mowing shoes).  The water temp ranged from around 40 F in one spot to close to 150+ F just inches away.  Really neat...

The return trip was uneventful, me and my now engaged buddy had some really cool talks in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere Montana about ETs, Religion, Science, our Lives, my girlfriend at the time (which I was close to breaking up with which is a totally different story)

Every road trip I have been on includes some life changing moments, this one featured my buddy getting engaged, my first peak climb, returning to Yellowstone and cementing some awesome memories with some life long pals.

Offline FX-7

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2003, 03:13 PM »
Man OCB that is some cool stories...I've been through Montana and it sucks until you get to Billings.  Me and my girlfriend are thinking about moving there
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Offline Morgbug

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Road Trip!
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2003, 09:27 PM »
So, how far would you drive for the opportunity to buy Star Wars toys?

The answer probably depends on your relative luck locally and through trading.  Having long ago exhausted most of my trade bait (unless you collect McFarlane hockey variants) I've reached the point of open begging and people have been most gracious.  However, at times I feel bad about perpetually asking for favors that I can seldom repay.  

As most know, I, like Dale, live in the Siberia of toys: Canada.  It has been dry for the better part of over a year with a few random items showing up locally only recently.  Being in a relatively small market (<700,000 souls) it tends to be even drier, or the competition steeper.  I'm pleased to report that locally I found CW Asajj, Mace and an ARC trooper in blue.  Earlier this week I found two red ARCs locally.  Pretty good since the last thing I found was last November and it was Palpatine and Djas Puhr.  Yep, it sucks that bad.  

Hearing/reading the tales of success of late, from North Carolina on up through Minnesota, I decided it was time for a day trip.  Grand Forks, roughly an hour north of Fargo (4.5-5 hours from Minneapolis) is 2.5 hours south of me, across a foreign border.  The roads can be treacherous at times, given the winter weather.  It was bright and sunny so screw work (I phoned in and took a holiday day) and on the road we go.  

Typical border crossing questions:
Where you from?  Winnipeg.
How long will you be down for? 4 hours, give or take.
Purpose - stocking stuffers and toys.
How much US cash? none (truth).
How much Canadian cash? $50
Your car?  Yep.
Have a good day.

And on we go.  Pleased to see speed limit on I-29 is 75MPH, makes trip seem shorter.  Arrive in Grand Forks almost exactly 2.5 hours (2 hours, 29 minutes) after leaving my door.  

The Targets:
Star Wars anything, Hoth wave would be great.
McFarlane sportspick variants - any.
Simpsons, new or old.
Muppets - Waldorf and Statler.  
Anything else that catches my interest.

First stop: Super Target.
Nice store.  Huge, well lit, wide aisles.  Doesn't give me that Walmart claustrophobic, so much crap, get the hell out of my way I'm suffocating and just want to leave feeling.  Off to toy section and wish for said feeling as the toy section looks as lame as our retailers up here.  There are precisely two SW figures on eight pegs.  Wedding Padme and Factory Padme.  12" Leia speeder bike was abundant, 9 units.  Clearance item?  Since chuckles has already obtained the 3 3/4" figs, I move on.  Found two NHL6 Carter variants.  Funny stuff, nobody seems to realize which is the chase figure.   LOL.  One is beat up, one in great shape but I still have two at home I don't want, so leave them behind.  Pigs in Space playset is there, but no evidence of wave 6 of muppets.  No simpsons except for a few old items/environments.  Overall rating:  Lame.

Gamestop:  Interesting store, EB with toys.  Lots of old crap lying around but nothing really of interest.  I should have snagged the NBA5 Wallace figure my buddy wants, but forgot while looking at other stuff.  No recent Simpsons and no McFarlane chase figs.  Out the door.  Wasn't expecting much, so not at all upset.  Staff were very pleasant.

Walmart.  The dreaded Wallyworld.  As above, claustrophobic and crowded.  Presumably the locals knew there was no point in going to Target, unlike me.  Wind my way to toys, which are not quite set up like most Wallys.  I find the guns, then the toys ;)  They were close, but not like most stores.  Anyhoo, cruise the aisles looking, looking, looking.  Ah, action figures.  Lame on LOTR, spiderman classics, ML sucked (as it did everywhere on my journey, not an ML5 to be found) and just about everything else.  Good load of SW figs on the pegs, but fearfully most were CW Anakin, Yoda and ARC trooper blue, of which I must have 7 or 8 already.  I drove two plus hours, so I'm digging through the pegs no matter what.  To my pleasant surprise I find R-3PO and an old blue carded Imperial officer (sideburns).  Sweet, seem to have missed rest of Hoth wave, but I got something at least.  Check around and buried behind some boxes are Ultra Riekaan and 3PO!  Whoo-hoo, score!  I love these sets, but it looks like they did sort of a crappy job of turning R-3PO into this C-3PO.  Way too red.  No matter, pleased as all get out am I.  
Guy is loading Hot Wheels into a basket and tells me he dropped in two Treasure Hunts.  I ask if he has any idea where they are and he tells me uh-uh, not that easy. Fair enough and I walk away, much to his amazement.  Snag a couple of bags of Red Vines and motor on.  

Columbia Mall is next stop, with KB, Suncoast and some store going out of business.  In my travels I find not one, but two black Elektra chase from minimates.  Jeez, if it was this easy in Canada, I probably would collect these.  

KB was blech.  Tie Fighters and Gamorrean Guards at 25% off, but off the regular price.  Pass.  Nothing but lame on the pegs either.  Overall disappointing.  

Suncoast had me pumped, really hoping to find Waldorf and Statler for my wife for Christmas.  Cruise in, lots of Muppets 6 but no old dudes :-\  Dang, was really hoping and this was a big part of the justification.  Bummer.  
Had lots of toys here, probably the best selection of anywhere, but for a couple bucks more.  Blue clone 3 pack (already have, thanks Matt), Durge on speeder bike (thanks Nick), regular Durge (thanks flounder) and all sorts of cool stuff.  Mezits 3 pack of mini-predators.  Kingdom come figures, JLA 6" figures.  Could have dropped some serious coin there.  

Head back to Target to get some stuff for stockings at Christmas.  Leave, check into BestBuy and find out League of X is $10 cheaper and Sony Minidiscs are a third of the price they are in Canada ::)  Like a fool, I buy neither.  

Get back to border, have to pay $9.50 Cdn in taxes and cruise home.  Happy.  Next road trip is probably third week in January, going all the way to Fargo (4 hour drive) this time.  More stores.  

Pleased to get what I did, but still need the following (this is the begging part):
Luke Skywalker (Saga Hoth) x2
Hoth Rebel Soldier (Battle of Hoth)
Wampa

Luke Skywalker (Jabba's Palace, Episode VI) x2
R1-G4 x2
R2-D2 (bartender)

The later stuff may be well timed for me for the next road trip.  Thanks for reading :)


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Offline Snively Bandar

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Re: Road Trip!
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2003, 10:22 PM »
Sounds fun Morgbug, except the part where you didn't find too much.   :-\  I trust you were already well aware of exactly what stores were in the area and where to go?  Sometimes, when I travel somewhere else or take a road trip, I'll run a quick search of the destination area on TRU.com, Target.com, Walmart.com, etc. to find all the stores within striking distance - with a handy map at my side of course.

Sounds like you need to find a local collecting friend up there to drag along on the road trip to pass the time a little better.  Granted you'd have to split the prize booty, but at least you've got a traveling companion and fellow collector/SW fan to shoot the crap with.

Still fun flying solo anyway, I suppose.  Better luck on your next trip though!   8)

Offline Morgbug

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Re: Road Trip!
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2003, 11:00 PM »
Yep, Store Locator is my best friend. :)  And speaking of friends, I tried to convince my fellow collector at work but no go.  

I believe I missed another Target and a Kmart in the area, but I didn't have time as my wife had a meeting tonight.  I just had an urge to go buy something.   :)
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Offline Matt

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2004, 08:14 PM »
Figured I'd bump this one up, with a tale of my own:

Three years ago, my buddy Roger (former curator of The Dupe) and I took a massive road trip in April 2001.  There wasn't really a point or a purpose to it at all--but that's one of the great things about road trips:  They don't have to have much of a purpose, and, much like Dr. Jones, you can make it up as you go.

We rented a car, and took off for Denver, by way of Kansas (which is, indeed, probably the most-boring state to travel through, and this is coming from someone who lives in Oklahoma.  Good thing we don't have any Kansans here at JD. . . or do we?)  Got to Denver, where Roger promptly got an expensive speeding ticket on I-70.  Hung out with a friend of Roger's there for a night or two, and then promptly took off for Wyoming.  

It wasn't too far over the border when I got pulled over by a Wyoming officer, but luckily got away with only a warning.  Wyoming was beautiful, if not sparse, and we spent a couple of days hanging out and driving around.  

We were low on cash going into this trip, so we saved money when we could by not staying in hotels or motels, and by spending the night in our car in Wal-Mart parking lots.  We'd do this for a night or two, and then would find a motel to freshen up in, and to get a good night's rest in.  

But what I didn't realize is that April in Colorado or Wyoming is a lot colder than April in Oklahoma, so we stopped at a Wal-Mart in Wyoming and got a really thick, heavy-duty sleeping bag for those nights in the car.

We also took a side trip to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore.  On the way, we stopped by Devil's Tower, and I finished up my taxes and turned them in to the Devil's Tower Post Office on April 16, 2001 (the 15th was a Sunday).  We were playing Radiohead's OK Computer on the drive to the Tower, with it looming in the distance.  Made for a truly surreal experience, and I always think of that trip whenever I hear that record.  I've been intrigued by Devil's Tower ever since (of course) Close Encounters, so it was very cool to see it in person.  While I was doing my taxes, Roger took a walk to explore the other side of the Tower, and. . .  has never been seen since.  

Mount Rushmore was cool.  Don't know what else to say.  

We tried to stop and see the Crazy Horse monument, too, but they wanted like $10 or $20 just to get in, and for a couple of guys who are spending their nights in their cramped, rented Altima, that just wasn't going to happen.  Sorry, Chief.

Done with South Dakota and Wyoming, so we thought we'd head next to Yellowstone, through Wyoming.  Spent a good couple of hours travelling west on this narrow, two-lane highway, only to find that the way into Yellowstone was closed, so we had to backtrack to Gillette, and headed up through Montana.

A slight regret of mine is that we didn't get a whole lot of time to hang out in Montana.  Most of the time was spent driving through on I-94, but man, it was beautiful country.  Spent a night in Butte (in a room this time), and then headed south, to get into Yellowstone through Idaho.

Yellowstone was great--for what we got to see of it.  At that time of year, though, most of it was closed, so no Old Faithful, for example.  We did see some great things, though, and I would definitely like to spend some more time there with Scott's wife and kids, when the weather's a little bit warmer.

(Still reading, Dad?)  

While in Wyoming, we also visited the Grand Tetons, and made a lot of Dolly Parton jokes.

Onto Seattle!  Went back through Idaho, through Boise, during a real late night/early morning trip, where we decided to drive straight through.  We would go periods of literally thirty minutes to an hour without seeing another car on the road, so we put the Shawshank Redemption DVD on the laptop, and both watched that as we barrelled down the highway at 80 miles an hour.  Not much to say about Idaho's scenery, as it was pitch black, but I'm sure it looked much like Montana.

Seattle was very cool, and it was where we probably spent the most days total.  We did the usual stuff, went up to the top of the Space Needle, saw Jimi Hendrix's grave, took in a game at the (then) brand-new Safeco Field (beautiful), went drinking downtown, came back and took a piss underneath the Space Needle, etc.  You know, like you do.  Really liked it, and could easily see myself living there some day.  

Took a day trip to Vancouver, Canada, and really enjoyed that as well.  Really beautiful.  Even better, when getting back to the car (which was parked downtown), we discovered a parking ticket.  Roger was driving.  

Roger: 2, Matt: 0 (with one warning)

Went back down through Seattle and thought, as the good Nirvana/Kurt Cobain disciples like we were, we should take another side trip to Aberdeen, Washington, Kurt's hometown.  

Interestingly, on the way into Aberdeen, we passed this house on the side of the road which had a big "Star Wars Museum" sign out front.  Now Roger, he's not much of a fan, but I am, and we agreed that we'd stop on the way back from Aberdeen.

Aberdeen was a dump.  Pretty easy to see why Kurt was so eager to get out of that hellhole.

So, on the way out of Aberdeen, we stopped at the little Star Wars Museum House, and although I've blocked a good 90% of what happened there out of my mind, I can say that what did happen there was kind of a strange cross between a typical episode of The X-Files and The Silence of the Lambs.

I'd love to go into it, but what I will say, is that, if you're ever heading to Aberdeen, Washington, and you see the little Star Wars Museum House on the side of the road, don't stop there.  

Don't do it.

Onto Portland!

So from Seattle, we headed south to Portland, Oregon.  Spent a night there (in a room), and was really impressed.  Nice town, nice weather, etc.  One of the main bridges in the downtown area was closed off that day, because they were filming scenes for the movie The Hunted on it.  Pretty cool, I thought.

Next day, we headed south on I-5 to Eugene, and I believe it was Eugene where we stopped to fill up the car, only we didn't get to fill up our car.  No, in Oregon, you're not allowed to put gas in your own car, and being totally oblivious to this stupid-ass law, were then mocked by the forty-something hillbilly at the station.  It's a conversation which we still quote to this day:  "It's like. . .  THE LAW."  Very creepy.  Almost as creepy as the Star Wars Museum House outside of Aberdeen.  

So from Eugene, we thought we'd get off the interstate, so we headed west, and got onto 101, and took that south along the Oregon coastline.  Very gorgeous trip, but very slow-going.  We stopped at some beach just north of the California border, and played catch for a good couple of hours, and that was one of the most-memorable days of the whole trip.

Continued south on 101, where we spent a night in Crescent City (Wal-Mart parking lot)--which I believe was the place that most of the cast and crew of Jedi spent while filming the Endor scenes at the nearby Redwood National Park (could be mistaken, though.)  (I don't think the crew spent the night in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart, though--that, I'm not mistaken about.)

Drove through the Redwoods, and yes, the entire time, my little geek heart was aflutter with thoughts of Endor.  I guess it was around this time where we found the famous tourist attaction where you can drive your car through a tree, and yes, we drove our car through the tree.

So we continued south, to San Francisco, and while it was breathtaking scenery the whole time, man, was that slow.  Seemed like days.  It was days.

Got to San Fran; went over the Golden Gate, saw Alcatraz, saw the seals or whatever at Pier 39, saw the curvy street (although we didn't drive down it :( ), scored an exclusive Fambaa at the S.F. FAO.  What we didn't do was go to a Giants game at PacBell, which I instantly regretted--not only were they in the middle of a homestand, but this was also the year that Barry hit is 72 home runs, so it would have been great to see a game.  

S.F. was a great town, and we spent a couple days there, but there's not a whole lot left to say about it that hasn't already been said.  

Headed south to Los Angeles on I-5.  Like Idaho, this was mostly at night, so there wasn't a whole lot to see.  Spent a night in Bakersfield, and then hit L.A. the next morning.  

Hung out mostly in Santa Monica, did some walking around, checked out the beach, where we ran, slow-motion style, just like our Baywatch heroes.  We were amazed at how cold and cloudy it was there--this was nearing the beginning of May, and was a lot different than we thought it would be.  Saw the Hollywood sign, drove down the Strip, saw the Rainbow and the Whiskey (didn't have the balls to stop).

We did, though, have the balls to stop at an In-and-Out, and had the greatest fast-food hamburgers we've ever had in our lives.  (JediMAC--the next time you send me some junk, send me a Double-Double, too, will ya?)

Headed south from L.A. to either Murrieta or Temecula, and hung out with and spent the night with a couple of friends of Roger's on their ranch.  

From there, we headed south again to San Diego, where we didn't spend a whole lot of time, and then south again, and crossed over to Tijuana, where we didn't spend a whole lot of time, either (scary stuff).  

Went back up through San Diego to either Temecula or Murrieta, where we spent one more night at the ranch, and then it was. . .

Onto Vegas, baby!

And man, that trip from San Bernardid, through Barstow, to Vegas, that was a killer.  Boring as hell, not much in the way of scenery, outrageous gas prices.  

Got to Vegas, stayed just off the strip, and had very little cash left, which was quickly blown on booze and slot machines.  We both got incredibly wasted, and finally headed back to the room when the money ran out, at probably three in the morning.  I was making trashy, drunken come-ons to ever girl we'd walk past on the way back ("Damn, sugar!"), and Roger almost got hit by a car once or twice.

Good times.  

Got up, and headed out the next morning, and somewhere around that time is when things got ugly.

See, as some of you know, when you're cooped up with someone in a confined space for a long period of time, no matter how long you've known each other, and no matter how good of friends you are, sometimes you start getting testy.  

Well, by now, we'd been together in the same car for about two weeks (if not a little more), and, for as much fun as we'd had, we were sick of each other.

It all came to a head sometime after Vegas, where we stopped for Taco Bell.  We got into a little fight about whether or not to go in, or go through the drive-thru, and we decided to go through the drive-thru (I won).  However, I was driving, and on our way out of the parking lot, with Roger's tacos all over his lap, I pulled out way too fast, and his tacos were now all over the place.  His lap, the seat, the floorboard, everything.  We yelled a little bit about it back and forth, and then that was it.  We were both playing the Silent Treatment game, and were both doing pretty good.

Went over the Hoover Dam (one of the technological marvels of the modern era), went through Arizona, New Mexico, and the Texas panhandle, probably not saying fifty words between us.  (Mostly it was stuff like "I need to go to the bathroom", "do you want to stop here", "I'm hungry", that sort of thing).

So we made this trip from Vegas back to OKC in record time.  Granted, that stretch of I-40 isn't the most exciting, anyway, but we just blazed through it.  Think it probably took a day and a half or so.  

Finally got back to OKC around the first of May, 2001.  All told, we were gone for about two and a half weeks, put over 7,000 miles on the rental car, went through 13 states, and three countries total.

Even with the problems at the end, it was still a fantastic trip, which I'll always remember.

The first thing I did when I got back was return that big, expensive, stupid, slightly-used sleeping bag to a Wal-Mart here in OKC.  They tried to give me some grief about it, but I wasn't leaving the store with that sleeping bag, by God.  "You can't return things that have been used, like this".  "Okay, show me where it says that, then."

Virex: 1, Wal-Mart: 0.   8)

And stay tuned for Episode 2(004): The Road Trip Strikes Back, Midwest-Style, coming soon to a flophouse near you!

"The good news is that all that blood is actually ketchup. The bad news, however, is that all that ketchup is actually blood."

Offline JediMAC

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2004, 08:32 PM »
We rented a car, and took off for Denver, by way of Kansas (which is, indeed, probably the most-boring state to travel through, and this is coming from someone who lives in Oklahoma.  Good thing we don't have any Kansans here at JD. . . or do we?)

Uh...  Brian/mosnab's from Kansas.   ;)

Wait, no he's not.  That's Nebraska.  Whoops!   :P
« Last Edit: July 29, 2004, 08:32 PM by JediMAC »

Offline Rob

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2004, 09:22 PM »
I've been on five decent ones.

1)  Age 16:  Went to upstate New York with a friend's band so they could play a show with a band called Bigwig.

2)  Age 17:  Went to D.C. with friends to see the Star Wars Magic of Myth exhibit when we thought that it would be a one time only deal - also drove up to Pittsburgh to visit friends and went white water rafting on the Ohio Pyle (pile?).

3)  Age 18:  Skipped senior prom to drive to Kentucky to go to Krazy Fest.  Saw Snapcase and Sick of it All among dozens of other kick ass bands.

4)  Age 20:  First tour with my old band - we went up the coast from Tampa to NYC and back.  Three weeks.  Very fun.

5)  Age 21:  Second tour with my old band, started in Tampa, headed out through Alabama, up through Tenn. and Chicago and Indy into Pennsylvania over to NYC and then back down the coast.  Also very very fun.

I've been on many other short ones, but those are the big ones.

Offline Famine

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2004, 09:38 PM »
Zod, where in Upstate NY did your friends play? Thats my neck of the woods!


Kevin
The picture kept, will remind me...

Offline Rob

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2004, 11:38 PM »
Zod, where in Upstate NY did your friends play? Thats my neck of the woods!


Kevin


Middletown.  Near you?

Offline Scott

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2004, 10:21 AM »
I would definitely like to spend some more time there with Scott's wife and kids, when the weather's a little bit warmer.

(Still reading, Dad?)  
Yes I am, when would you like to take them?

Yellowstone is one of my most favorite places on Earth.  And I would love for them to go back again.  Wifey and I went there soon after she found out she was with child the first go 'round and that was a fun trip for us.  The scenery, the wildlife and the natural wonder cannot be beat.  I do think the scenery at Crater Lake and Yosemite is better but Yellowstone is tops in my book

I also think that trip west is one everyone needs to take (unless you are on the West coast, then you need to come East)  It is sort of a classic part of Americana and one I highly, highly recommend having done it at least three times

The first thing I did when I got back was return that big, expensive, stupid, slightly-used sleeping bag to a Wal-Mart here in OKC.  They tried to give me some grief about it, but I wasn't leaving the store with that sleeping bag, by God.  "You can't return things that have been used, like this".  "Okay, show me where it says that, then."

Virex: 1, Wal-Mart: 0.   8)

My brother-in-law works for Wal-mArt as an Asst. Manager, he relayed to me a while back that they will take absolutely anything back.  Even used, they would rather keep you as a customer than have you pissed off at them and not shop there ever again

And stay tuned for Episode 2(004): The Road Trip Strikes Back, Midwest-Style, coming soon to a flophouse near you!

WooHoo!
« Last Edit: July 30, 2004, 10:22 AM by OCB »

Offline Matt

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2004, 02:37 PM »
And stay tuned for Episode 2(004): The Road Trip Strikes Back, Midwest-Style, coming soon to a flophouse near you!

Well, kids, this is it.  Everything's packed, and in just a few short moments, we'll be off to the cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, for some much-needed R & R.

Looking forward to it--haven't really taken one of these in about three years or so. 

There's not a computer up there, and even if there was, there's no internet access, anyway.  Just a TV (no cable), DVD player, a radio, and that's about it.  It'll be a big change--but a welcome one.

Anyway, you guys take it easy, and I'll see you when I see you.
"The good news is that all that blood is actually ketchup. The bad news, however, is that all that ketchup is actually blood."

Offline jjks

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Re: Road Trips
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2004, 02:40 PM »
Have fun dude, goes without saying that I'm going to miss you horribly  :'(