US Trip (nights in red)30 days, 23 states, 7200 miles driven. Not a bad trip, huh?

On July 1, I picked Brian up in Vancouver, WA. So you know your boy K rolls in style, right? I figured that since I’m not going to be able to buy another fun car until I have a midlife crisis, I might as well go with something fly. After checking out nearly every car in America, I ended up leasing a Z4 convertible.

Skeet skeet skeet skeet skeetI think the heated leather is pretty much a requirement, isn’t it? Actually, don’t think I’m living too large - a strange set of incentives and some good haggling means this is a cheaper lease than a Camry. If you want a manual with no options, it would be easy to get one for 410-415/month, zero down, and that includes all service down to the oil changes. On the downside, I got a ticket within 24 hours of buying the car. On the upside, I’d gone through a number of bits of Eastern Oregon at up to 115mph (have to keep it reasonable, right?) before getting pulled over. Now I live the cruise control life.

Eastern OregonCar in hand, we flew out of Eugene the next day. After passing through John Day Fossil Beds and Hells Canyon N.P. (both quite scenic and basically deserted), we rolled up for some camping at Glacier Park. We hiked up to a almost-sheer glacier at 9200 ft. and, as men are wont to do, decided to see who could roll a boulder further down the mountain. It was a bit challenging as we had to avoid our good friend, the marmot.

Watch our for stones, marmot!From there, we checked out the American Computer Museum in, er, Bozeman, Montana, and then swung to Yellowstone. So this heat wave sweeping the country did not hit Yellowstone - it was cold as balls. After a night sleeping in the car after 35 degrees and a torrent of rain greeted us, we were ready to roll out. Geysers and buffalo were nice, though.

My bud from back in the day, Stiegs, is living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, so the next destination had to be Hollywood North, right? My other favorite girl from back home, Ace, happened to be in town at the same time. We were challenged to race up a mountain, ate at the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been to, danced with some time-weathered cowboys at a country bar, and hung out with some Olympians. Not a bad life, right?

Well, empty space and these guysFrom Jackson to Minneapolis is a lot of empty space. Luckily, you can cover a lot of ground at 85 miles per hour. We did check out the Badlands, new home of my old roommate Dave. Scenic, but aptly named. As a bud from South Dakota said when we told him Dave was going to work at the Pine Ridge rez: “That place is like Mexico.”

Why did it have to be snakes?After seeing my sis in Minnesota and some family in Wisconsin, we stopped at newly-married Claire’s house outside the Chi. Claire is our first domesticated friend. Well, not too domesticated; we did spend the evening watching Ferris Bueller and playing Halo with her and her husband. Chicago is a great city, by the way, and Millenium Park is the best public park I’ve been to in America. The “Cloud Gate” sculpture is unparalleled public art.

Cloud Gate, ChicagoBrian’s Aunt and Uncle (and six kids) live in the most stereotypical American small town I’ve ever been to: Kokomo, Indiana. The major downtown attractions are “The Bull and the Stump”, which are exactly what they sound like. The Dad make the joke that the coasts are like a bad cereal: nothing but fruits, nuts and flakes (Ok, it was kinda funny). The first thing we did was go skeet shooting; mind you, I’d never fired, or even seen, a gun in my life, and now I’m out in rural Indiana firing a big ass rifle. Unsurprisingly, I hit not a damn thing. Did I mention that Kokomo has 300 churches for 48000 people? Or that the biggest employers are GM and Delphi? I half expected to see the Beav bike by on his way to the 5 and 10!

After a quick detour to Kentucky, Amish Country and Niagara, we pulled up to my old stomping grounds, Western Mass. They finally paved the road I lived on, but otherwise everything seemed as it had been. Brian had somehow managed not to partake in a true New England tradition, Candlepin bowling, so we made sure to stop by the lane. Is it a bit provincial of me to not know that Vermont is as west as candlepin gets, and that “four horsemen,” “spread eagle” and “deadwood” aren’t well understood by the segment of the American populace that fully enunciated their “r”’s?

Bright lights in the NYCAfter a quick stay in Boston and a visit to the palatial cottages of Newport, RI, we were in New York. I knock New York a lot, but actually, there are some pretty happenin’ things in the city: great art culture, the world’s best ethnic neighborhoods (such as Flatbush, where we stayed), and some of the best museums in the world. But I still don’t like the people. What can I say? Old rivalries die hard.

Tiny bar in Somewhere, NCThe last bit of the trip flew by quick: a beautiful beach in Belmar, NJ, a race at Gettysburg, the wonderful Smithsonian, and a bluegrass festival in Appalachia. Now I’ve got to do the Southern route, right? Give it a few years. We easily could’ve spent twice as long on the route we did!

I’m two weeks into my job here in Richmond now. Though my coworkers and the people I’ve met so far are pretty much all fellow carpetbaggers, this is definitely the dirty. You should hear some of the accents I hear down here. The top story in the paper today was an expansion of seating at the NASCAR track outside town. Good times.

I only had one day to get a place, so I’m subletting a room in a brand new house about 2 miles from my job. It’s a good deal, and on the plus side, it turns out the neighborhood I live in has a reputation as a pretty gnarly ghetto. I live right on the edge and it’s perfectly fine here, but the looks I get when I tell people I live in Highland Park are pretty funny. I’ll have more to say about my job soon…

(PS: New photos posted to the right, and full photos from the trip are here under Road Trip USA)

wow a trip to the Hollywood of the North. that is some good stuff! why didnt you talk about the buffalo chasing you or the giant moose who….wait that didnt happen. too bad that would have been some cool story. i hope the nascar thing is going well. i hope you meet someone as cool as me, but the redneck version of course!

Damn, u bought a z4 convertible? that’s sick. You are truly gangsta now!

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