Road Trip Day 2

So Day 2 was the least eventful day of the trip. I legitimately have no notes on the day, so this will be a relatively short post.

I’d originally planned on driving from SLC to Omaha Nebraska. Then, I actually looked at a map and realized that driving to Omaha would add two extra hours to my trip, one in the evening and one the next day, so I switched it to Lincoln instead.

My goal was to get out of Wyoming before the sun set. I didn’t want to have to deal with hills and mountains in the dark. Thanks to my singular focus, I met this goal with over an hour to spare. Wyoming wound up being an easy drive. The highway was only two lanes at most points, and there were some stretches where construction reduced traffic to one lane, but since I had the sun, I had no issues. It was a scenic drive,  and I attempted to take some photos, but other than that, not much to report.

The first food stop was Sonic. I needed a snack to tide me over, so I got a Cheese Coney, the first of three on the trip. Not exactly a culinary delicacy, but since Sonics have never been readily available wherever I’ve lived, I was fine using a meal on it.

I’d planned on having a decent meal after I entered Nebraska, but kept finding reasons (mostly imagined) to postpone a dinner stop. I finally decided to eat after 10pm, and of course it was a McDonald’s. Not exactly getting the food stops off to an auspicious stop, but I swear I make up for it later on the trip.

Last interesting note: I arrived in Lincoln after 2am. I had to drive through the downtown area to reach my hotel for the evening. I’m not sure when bars let out, but the streets were decently populated. More interestingly, I was stopped at two red lights, each time with another car. At both of these lights, the other cars essentially crept through the intersection until the light turned green. I realize that waiting at red lights when there are no cars or pedestrians going in other directions is frustrating, but do people in Nebraska realize that red lights are not optional? Not sure if they got the memo on that one…

Anyway, tomorrow is Day 3. I drove from Lincoln to Kansas City Missouri and took in my first game of the trip. There’s some good stuff coming up, so tune in (hopefully) tomorrow and you can see my thoughts on KC and Kauffman Stadium.

Road Trip Day 1

So I recently drove across the country and am back on my beloved East Coast. The drive itself took 12 days (as opposed to the 4 I took last time), and I made some specific stops at baseball games along the way. I took notes throughout the trip (some, while stopped and fully attentive, others, unfortunately while driving, and other things will hopefully be recalled as I type). I’ll write a post for each day of the trip. Some will be longer and more entertaining than others, but I wanted to try and document everything that was interesting. Hopefully reading this will be as fun as taking the trip was. As an overall assessment, I had an absolute blast and wholly recommend road trips to anyone, whether they be focused on baseball, camping, or some other personal interest. As for the format of these posts, you’ll get some detailed stories, some observations and some things that would have fit better at tweets, but were never tweeted for various reasons. Without further ado, here is Day 1.

So my day began running behind, as usual. I spent the weekend before in Massachusetts for a wedding, and flew back on Sunday evening. I needed to pack up the rest of my things Sunday night/Monday morning before I could leave. Of course, three days earlier I had already shipped a significant portion of my things onto a moving truck. I thought that fitting my clothes and bedding things wouldn’t be too difficult. Of course, it was too much. Apparently I own too many clothes. So I needed to make a stop at FedEx/Kinko’s to ship two suitcases East. Nothing like dropping an extra $90 after you’ve already paid $2000 on shipping costs to start a trip off right. Anyway, I finally hit the road at 11:20, two hours later than I wanted.

I passed the O.co Coliseum at 11:53am. The Raiders were playing a preseason game that evening. I’m not sure if it started at 7 or 8. However, they were already people WAITING OUTSIDE THE PARKING LOT TO BEGIN TAILGATING. How can you have absolutely nothing to do on a non-holiday Monday morning than to wait outside a stadium parking to BBQ and binge drink. Oakland, I am impressed and tip my cap to you.

1:49PM: I hear Starships for the first time. During the bachelor party for the aforementioned wedding, Starships became our theme song. I’m still not entirely certainly how or why it happened, but it did. The song currently occupies a space where I like to think I’m ironically enjoying it, but in actuality I probably just really like the song. I’ve yet to purchase it, but give it a week or two. I anticipated hearing it at least 20x over the next week. We’ll see if I hit that number.

There are certain parts of this ride that are easy, and other parts that aren’t. Obviously, driving through the flat Nevada desert with few cars and almost no cops around is easy. Mountains: not so much. 3 years ago, I took the same route. I entered Wyoming at around sunset, and wound up needing to drive through those mountains and hills to Salt Lake City in the dark. O, there was also a severe thunderstorm at that point. I was scared shitless and driving 50mph in the right lane with my blinkers on. If I could’ve seen into the cabs of trucks, I’m sure they were all either swearing at me for going to so slow or laughing. Regardless, when I hit the mountains in Eastern California I started peeing myself.

30 minutes before the California-Nevada border, I hit a rainstorm. I at least managed to keep my wits about me, but I definitely slowed down, started driving on the right, and my pants may have gotten damp.

Before I enter Nevada as part of this narrative, I would like to make one final discourse on California drivers. They are the worst drivers I have encountered in the union. I have driven fairly extensively through 30 states and DC, so I’d like to think my wholly personal experience translates to everyone else in the world. California drivers seem to get around thinking there is no one else on the road, and everyone else is capable to reacting to their own personal whims. Drivers on the east coast may be crazier (which will be a theme), but there’s at least a controlled chaos to everything. It all fits and makes sense. No such thing in California.

At this point, I will also make another diversion (get ready for lots of these). I somehow have acquired the bladder of someone who has had their bladder punctured by a knife 50x. I seriously need to go to the bathroom at least once an hour. It gets really annoying and frustrating when one constantly needs to stop. So while I’m not going to mention every bathroom trip, unless they were particularly eventful, imagine one between every paragraph in these posts. With that mental imagery, let’s move on.

I stopped in Reno for my first meal of the trip. I planned on making better food stops on this trip. Last time, I only ate fast food and chain restaurants, and wanted to change that this time and really get some local flavor and try some things I’d never eaten before. So of course, my first stop was KFC. I had Hot Wings and potato wedges. They were delicious.

Sparks Nevada in next to Reno. I went there to get gas. The city is so terribly shittily designed, that it’s almost incomprehensible. The simple act of leaving a highway to get gas and to return to the highway took about 5x as long as necessary. I hate this place.

7:15PM: I hear Starships for the second time. I missed the first verse. I’m kinda upset.

Roadside rest stops are interesting places. While I appreciate states putting in places to rest and relieve oneself, after dark, if not well lit and with conspicuous surveillance camera, they are creepy places. After I stopped at one in the middle of Nevada and got spooked, I resolved to only stop at gas stations from then on, which leads into this whopper of a story…

I got pulled over somewhere near Elko. I have been pulled over once before in my life, so it was a slightly nerve wracking experience for me. I’d just gotten back on the highway and thought that the cop pulled me over for jumping the end of the construction zone (with a speed limit 20mph less than outside). No, instead I’d been pulled over because he caught me in a DUI trap (yes I am serious). Now, I don’t claim to be a criminal law expert, but I’m still not entirely certain what the DUI standard was or how I got pulled over. Regardless, he had a real reason to stop me: when I entered the highway, I didn’t use a turn signal (which is especially embarrassing for me since I know I use them more than anyone else I know. Needless to say, I have yet to enter a highway sine then without using a turn signal). So I pull over the cop approaches my car. I pull out my license and roll down the window. The cop is very friendly, explains he’s on DUI protocol (bullshit) and we chat for a minute. He asks for my registration, but I point to the glove compartment and tell him because I have several bags against it, it’ll take me a few minutes to find my registration, and I’ll need to leave the car. He asked me what I as doing, and I told him I was driving back home from living in CA for the past few years. Unfortunately “home” is not the same state as my plates (for now!) so when he ran my plate and license I had to hope everything was in order (which it was).

As I’m sitting in my car breathing deeply, I see someone approach my car on the passenger side with a flashlight. I freak out, because I’m in the middle of nowhere Nevada. It was the officer, looking through my backseat at my belongings, trying to see if I had some illegals (or something) under my pillows. I roll down my passenger side window and we begin a new conversation.

Officer: Where did you say you were going again?

Me: Oh, well I’m coming from California and I’m driving to (the east coast). I just started this morning.

Officer: Oh, that’s nice. Well I should tell you, I’m getting a whiff of marijuana in your car. Are you transporting any drugs?

Me: No officer, I have no drugs in my car.

Me in my head: WTF???????!!!!!!!!!!! There were no drugs in my car and never have been at any point. This messed with my head because I had no clue what was going to happen next. I knew the car was clear, but I was worried about getting thrown into jail on some bullshit.

Officer: Well, I can tell you that I’m definitely getting a whiff. I think I may need to call down and get some dogs down here to sniff around your car. Is that fine with you?

Me: Officer, I promise you I have nothing in my car. I’m just trying to get to Salt Lake City tonight, but if you need to call in the dogs, then I’m fine with that. I’d just like to move along as quickly as possible since I still have 4 hours of driving tonight (note: I didn’t arrive at my hotel until 6 hours after this occurred).

Me in my head: WTF????????!!!!!!!!!! DOGS?!?!?!?! HE IS SMELLING THE TOWEL I SHOWERED WITH THIS MORNING AND DIDN’T HAVE THE CHANCE TO DRY OFF BEFORE I ENTERED THE CAR. WHO CALLS IN DOGS OVER A WHIFF OF POT?!?!?!?!

Officer: I’m sorry to ask again, but what were you doing in California>

Me: No problem officer. I just graduated law school and took the bar exam there, and now I’m going to (the east coast for additional schooling). This is kinda my post bar trip, I plan on seeing some baseball games.

Officer: You just graduated law school?

Me: Yes sir.

Officer: Well I’ll tell you what, I’ve been wrong about these things before. Pull about 50-60 feet up, and when you can see beyond my car, pull onto the highway.

Me: So you want me to pull over by the sign?

Officer: No, you don’t need to pull over, just pull forward until the coast is clear, then you can go.

Me: Wait… so there are no dogs?

Officer: No, I’m probably wrong here. Have a good night.

Me: So… I’m free to go?

Officer: Yes, no dogs, you can go.

After this, I took so long to calm down and get ready to leave, that the officer pulled away and drove off before I did. I then was freaked out and did not even bother driving the speed limit for the rest of the night. The limit was generally 75mph, but I was lucky if I was doing 65. I just couldn’t drive fast. The rest of the night was generally unmemorable. I didn’t make it to the hotel until 3:30 that morning.

Coming up Day 2: Salt Lake City to Lincoln Nebraska: not gonna lie, this will be the shortest entry of the trip. But I swear some good stuff is coming up afterwards!