catbox_9's 2009 Road Trip Thread

My road trip to Michigan and some less interesting places began today!

Day 1:
Paso Robles, CA to Grand Junction, CO

DISTANCE: 904.94 miles
States visited: 6 (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado)

Are you going to Comerica Park?

And if so; Are you gonna pay me a visit

I hope so.


Go Catbox

Drive Safely!

Hey, you're in Colorado! Buy a Rockies hat or something.

bobrob2004 wrote:

Hey, you're in Colorado! Buy a Rockies hat or something.

And some sunscreen and shorts


It is only 69 degrees as of 7:45pm


But it will be near 90 later next week

I forgot to say this yesterday...

Day One Highlights/Observations:


I saw the James Dean Memorial. Since I live 45 minutes from there and have seen it a million times it wasn't at all exciting.

We drove through Las Vegas and saw the strip. That would have been exciting only I've been to Vegas tons of times and the traffic there sucked.

Arizona was only for a few miles and was all desert with temperatures reaching 118 degrees.

Utah was more desert and pretty ugly. Utah sucks though so that was no surprise.

gs78 wrote:

Are you going to Comerica Park?

And if so; Are you gonna pay me a visit

I hope so.


Go Catbox

I think I'm going to Thursday's game? You going to be there?

bobrob2004 wrote:

Hey, you're in Colorado! Buy a Rockies hat or something.

I bought nothing in Colorado

We bought gas and food actually, not quite nothing.

I didn't see any Rockies anything while in Colorado. We didn't quite go through Denver, just the outskirts.

Day 2:
Grand Junction, CO to Des Moines, IA

DISTANCE: 899.75 miles
States visited: 3 (Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa)



OVERALL:

DISTANCE: 1802.69 miles
States visited: 8 (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa)

Day 2 Highlights/Observations

Unlike day one, part of today's drive was scenic. The drive from Grand Junction, CO to Denver, CO was pretty cool to look at. There were tons of mountains (duh) and rivers and grass and trees and stuff like that. The highest summit we reached was something like 11,000 feet above sea level. Denver to the Nebraska border got less and less interesting.

Nebraska was horrible and long. It may just be the worst state in the union. I don't think we ever went more than 20 miles without "construction". During the construction you could still go 75 and nothing appeared to be being done. It is a double fine zone so I think the state just wants more money and is saying the whole state is under construction. The capital city of Lincoln is mostly just 2 lanes in each direction which shows how pathetic the state is. Omaha seems like a decent city. We drove by Rosenblatt Stadium which looks cool.

Iowa is pretty much the same as everything since Denver. Nothing but flat land and cornfields. Speed limit is only 70 MPH here which also sucks (it had been mostly 75 since Nevada).


------

It is also worth noting that despite the fact that all 3 people in my party are licensed drivers, I have driven every mile so far on this trip

catbox_9 wrote:

gs78 wrote:

Are you going to Comerica Park?

And if so; Are you gonna pay me a visit

I hope so.


Go Catbox

I think I'm going to Thursday's game? You going to be there?

I should be; I am in Section 102 Row G Seat 6


I can send you a private message with my cell phone number and if you have your cell you can give me a call on Thursday before the game and we can meet if you have trouble finding me at Comerica

Good Luck on your road trip; drive safe; watch out for the cops; the speed traps and such;

gs78 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

gs78 wrote:

Are you going to Comerica Park?

And if so; Are you gonna pay me a visit

I hope so.


Go Catbox

I think I'm going to Thursday's game? You going to be there?

I should be; I am in Section 102 Row G Seat 6


I can send you a private message with my cell phone number and if you have your cell you can give me a call on Thursday before the game and we can meet if you have trouble finding me at Comerica

Good Luck on your road trip; drive safe; watch out for the cops; the speed traps and such;

Yeah, that'll work. I'll check the weather forecast and talk with the people I'm staying with and make sure Thursday is the game I want to go to.

Day 3:
Des Moines, IA to Grand Blanc, MI

DISTANCE: 605.9 miles
States visited: 4 (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan)



OVERALL:

DISTANCE: 2410.13 miles
States visited: 11 (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan)

Day 3 Observations:

Nothing much exciting to look at. Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana are boring to look at. Drove through Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, MI but didn't see anything exciting.

Got pulled over in Illinois (no ticket) for "speeding". Cop said I was going 66 or so (65 MPH zone). I saw him for a long time, that's why I was going so slow. He asked a ton of questions about why I was so far from California. His final comment was that a lot of cannabis (marijuana) is transported in that area from CA and wanted to know if we were transporting drugs. We weren't and told him no. Dumb question if you ask me - if I was transporting drugs does he think I'd tell him?

Wow catbox, that's a long trip! You did the whole thing in three days? Not bad! Have a lot of fun at the game!
Show them how to hit that damn ball!

I will send you a private message Catbox

swiss_tiger wrote:

Wow catbox, that's a long trip! You did the whole thing in three days? Not bad! Have a lot of fun at the game!
Show them how to hit that damn ball!

Yep, three days.

Sounds like my family insists on going to the game with me so I won't be going to Windsor

We're going to Ann Arbor tomorrow to look at Michigan Stadium so I guess that makes up for it.

------------

Day 4:

Stayed in Grand Blanc/Flint. Went to Meijer and Wal-Mart (sorry, gs ). Didn't do anything anyone would want to hear about.

Have Fun Catbox

Change of plans - going to Ann Arbor Saturday instead of today. Going to CHICAGO today!

Why didn't you go to Chicago before you came to Michigan?

gs78 wrote:

Why didn't you go to Chicago before you came to Michigan?

Didn't have time - we were in a hurry to get to Michigan. Plus the people we were staying with wanted to go to Chicago. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. We didn't decide to go to Chicago until the morning when we were deciding what to do that day.

Day 5: Grand Blanc, MI to Chicago, IL



DISTANCE: 279.67 miles
States Visited: 3 (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois)

Day 5 Observations:

Here's a few random Chicago pictures my sister took (too lazy to upload ones I took):



I don't know these people:

Did you get your tickets for Thursday's game yet?

gs78 wrote:

Did you get your tickets for Thursday's game yet?

I bought them tonight. I'm sitting in the $45 section in the infield. I forget which section. It's row 22. Only my uncle and I are going. He wants to leave here (Grand Blanc) at 10. I'm hoping to leave earlier.

I'm going to try to stop by and say hi. Hopefully it doesn't rain much.

We're probably going to either Cheli's Chili or Hockeytown Cafe after the game. He usually goes to Greektown for pizza, but I just had real Chicago pizza (in Chicago) last night and those other two places are close to the stadium and I think they're popular places for sports fans.

Day 5: Chicago IL, to Grand Blanc, MI



DISTANCE: 279.67 miles
States Visited: 3 (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois)

Day 5 Observations:

Spent more time in Chicago. Walked along Michigan Avenue. Only stayed for a few more hours. I really want to get back to Chicago since I didn't get to see Wrigley Field or the Billy Goat Tavern. It seems like a cool city. Way too much to do than we could do in about 10 hours (between the 2 days we probably only spent 10 hours in downtown Chicago).

I'm going to a Tigers game tomorrow

C'mon no rain

I went to Chicago on my 8th grade trip. Most schools go to Washington DC, but we had to be different (I would've rather gone to DC).

I really liked it in Chicago. I want to go back.