Launching a New Blog

Hello, friends! I've been absent for a while, but great things have been happening - lots of cool trips and some pretty great advances on the freelancing front.

In support of both those efforts, I've decided to breathe new life into my blog by combining it with my photography portfolio. You can follow my future adventures, as well as relive some my best trips from years past, over on my new blog.

I'm excited for things to come. Until then, never stop exploring.

Days 26 and 27: The Home Stretch

My original plan after visiting Buffalo was to spend a night in Pittsburgh. Because I somehow managed to unintentionally book a non-refundable hotel room there, it was my destination after Charleston. I solicited some great recommendations from a college roommate who grew up there.

I abandoned my first plan to have lunch downtown due to an utter lack of available parking, and instead headed to the Duquesne Incline, a local favorite. A slow ride up the funicular was rewarded by spectacular views of the city.

I do have to admit, however, that my fear of heights kicked in more than it has in a very long time.

Safely back on solid ground, I checked in to my hotel for the night. I chose to stay in Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood, which is centered around a main street of businesses that is about 10 blocks long. I walked to the far end and grabbed lunch at Primanti Brother's, a city favorite that specializes in amazing sandwiches.

Satisfied by my late lunch, I spent the rest of the evening wandering in and out of the shops and bars of the South Side, soaking in my last day on the road. I stopped back at my hotel to rest and debate whether I wanted to go out for dinner. It seems that I was completely exhausted, because I woke up a couple hours later, still in my winter jacket, and promptly changed into my pajamas and slept the rest of the night.

I knew snow was possible, so I left Pittsburgh fairly early in the morning. I was not remotely prepared for what I was about to drive through. There were light flurries as I left town, but then it just kept snowing harder and harder. Eventually they declared a state of emergency on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Good times.

Not really having a choice, I pushed on. I was due at my parents' house in Virginia that afternoon. More importantly, my rental car had to be returned that night.

The drive seemed to take forever, but I kept going. After passing through West Virginia for the third time on this trip, I finally crossed into Virginia.

After what felt like a day later, I pulled into my parents' driveway, turned off the car, and just sat for a minute. It was hard to believe my trip was over. I had seen so much, yet it felt like I'd just left. No matter how long vacations are, they somehow just never seem long enough.

Eventually I unloaded and cleaned out my car and took it back to the rental place, ready for the confusion as to why I was returning in a different car than I left in. Not surprisingly, I was of course charged for not filling up my broken car with gas before swapping it out -- oh, Tiffany from the Lexington airport, I'll never forget you. Thankfully they removed the fee because they had common sense, but I still had to spend about half an hour getting reimbursed for my unexpected oil change in Wyoming.

In the end, I drove a total of 7,709.5 miles through 22 states in 27 days.

This road trip was one of the best things I've ever done in my life. It's easy to forget just how beautiful our country is. Even with everything I saw in my month on the road, I barely even scratched the surface.

I can wholeheartedly say that a cross-country road trip is something that everyone should experience at least once in a lifetime.

Days 24 and 25: The Reroute

My initial plan after leaving South Bend was to cut through Michigan and Canada and spend a couple days in Buffalo, where I was born. It seems that Mother Nature was not down with that plan. Thanks to a small blizzard in Buffalo, I was forced to reroute on the fly.

My impromptu new path took me south through Indiana, with the goal of stopping in Louisville, Kentucky for the night. The drive was awful. It was raining the whole time -- not normal rain, but the kind of rain that makes it nearly impossible to see out the windshield even when your wipers are in frantic mode. I took a break to grab a gas station sandwich and snap a shot of a lovely Indiana corn field, and then I pushed on.

After a giant iced coffee and what felt like an eternity, I finally crossed into Kentucky and pulled in to my hotel for the night. I promptly took a nap after the exhausting day of driving.

Feeling somewhat rested, I ventured out into the evening and strolled through Louisville's pedestrian Fourth Street Live! area. It was still lightly raining so I didn't stay outside for long, but did stop to take in the early Christmas decorations.

Afterward I treated myself to a delicious barbecue dinner and a good night's sleep.

Having grown up watching my brother play baseball, I couldn't leave Louisville without visiting the famous Louisville Slugger factory. While I'm not usually a big fan of guided tours, I have to say it was great. Our guide was completely charming and there were only three of us in the group, so it felt very hands-on. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in Louisville, with or without kids.

With my souvenir miniature bat in tow, I forged a path to West Virginia. After a few hours of winding roads and traffic backups, I made it to my perfectly lovely hotel in Charleston. The fresh cookies in the lobby were an unexpected bonus.

After dropping off my bags, I set out on foot to explore. It was a bit of a hike, but I made it all the way to the beautiful capitol building.

On my walk back, I stopped at Sullivan's Records, which just might be my favorite record shop on this trip. I found a number of treasures and that, combined with a tasty dinner, left me content for the evening.

In the end, I have to say that my unexpected (and, frankly, unwelcomed) detour turned out to be pretty darn enjoyable.

Days 21-24: Into the Midwest

After wrenching myself from the surprising beauty of western South Dakota, I headed east to start my trek thought the Midwest. The contrast between western and eastern South Dakota could not be more harsh. I've already gushed enough about the western side. The eastern side, on the other hand, can best be described as...flat. There's nothing bad about it, but it's not particularly exciting. And word to the wise - don't bother going out of your way to visit the world-famous Corn Palace. That was one detour that I definitely could have skipped.

After spending an uneventful night in Sioux Falls at an odd hotel that was weirdly attached to a hospital, I decided to swing south and have lunch in Omaha, largely to be able to cross Nebraska off my list. For reasons I'll discuss in a minute, I have no pictures to show of Omaha. It was, however, quite lovely. The historic Old Market district is a cute area of cobblestone streets and local businesses. If the timing had worked better, I would have much rather stayed there than in Sioux Falls. But, alas.

After a highly satisfying lunch, I headed east. I got really excited when I crossed the Missouri River, because I mistakenly had it in my head that I was finally crossing the Mississippi.

Either way, it was beautiful. Iowa was largely what I expected -- a long expanse of farmland. And lots and lots of windmills (of the industrial farming variety). Although I did also find one of the more traditional variety, in an unexpected dutch town in the middle of nowhere.

Before stopping in Des Moines for the night, I was on a mission to finally visit an Apple Store and replace my shattered phone. Should be simple enough, right? Wrong. Oh, so very wrong. Mind you, I had the choice between going to an Apple Store in Omaha or in Des Moines. I chose the Des Moines one because it was less out of the way. I chose very poorly.

The level of incompetence was staggering. I won't get into all the tortured details, but suffice it to say that they did not fix my phone, managed to entirely wipe it, including all of my pictures (hence no Omaha pictures), and then not have a replacement phone to give me. They tried to send me on my way to Chicago without a working phone at all. That was not going to happen. Finally they got my shattered phone to be minimally operational again and I left nearly in tears. Follow that with Citibank mistakenly freezing my accounts and I was more than ready to stop for the night.

Thankfully karma rewarded me with an amazing hotel room. Really it was an entire suite, complete with a kitchen, couches, fireplace, and fluffy robes. So, all in all, the wonderful Des Lux Hotel was the only good part of my visit to Des Moines.

I hightailed it out of there in the morning and headed to Chicago to meet up with some of my closest college friends for the weekend. This time I crossed back to my regular side of the Mississippi for real.

Most of Illinois was shockingly rural, and it seemed like my GPS lady took me on a country back roads route. Either way, I made it to Chicago and finally got a new phone, complete with perfectly competent customer service. I then put the whole incident behind me and enjoyed a much-needed night of laughter and wine with old friends.

The next morning we headed back to where it all began for the Notre Dame vs. Louisville game. While the outcome of the game was crappy, the day was great. We tailgated and roamed campus, reliving memories of what seems like forever ago.

The rainy weather couldn't even ruin it. Even in the rain, Notre Dame's campus is a beautiful place. Sometimes a great time with old friends is just what the soul needs.

Days 18-20: South Dakota

In a surprising turn of events, I'm completely in love with the state of South Dakota.

The trip up from Wyoming was a little bit rougher than expected. In addition to an unexpected oil change on the rental car, for much of the drive through Wyoming I was fighting being blown off the road by 50+ mph wind gusts. And because I lost over an hour to the oil change and was too stubborn to adjust my agenda accordingly, I ended up on the road later than I wanted to be.

The upside of that was that I got to see Devil's Tower set against a great sunset backdrop.

Eventually I arrived in Deadwood, South Dakota, my destination for the night. The temperatures were arctic and the streets snow-covered, but my hotel was great and I treated myself to a delicious dinner of buffalo ravioli. Afterward I ventured to a local saloon where there was a great live band playing. It was some much needed relaxation after a long day of stressful driving.

Deadwood is a great town. I'd love to see it in the summer when everything is open and it's full of life. As it was, even in the frigid November temperatures I found myself tempted to just stay there and go off the grid. If this was the kind of trip where I just drove until I decided on a place to stop and set up camp, Deadwood would have been the place.

However, this is not that kind of trip, so I continued on the next day. To make up for my previous day of frantic driving, I spent the next day meandering my way through South Dakota with no set agenda. I had breakfast at a local restaurant in Sturgis, most famously known for the huge motorcycle rally the town hosts every summer. Sated, I moved on to Rapid City, where I found a great local record store and made some purchases, including some purple vinyl to add to my collection (how I'm going to get all my records home on the train from DC remains to be seen).

From Rapid City, I went to Mount Rushmore. I expected to be underwhelmed, but it really was beautiful. There's just something about it that makes you feel like you could stare at it forever.

 

What was not really worth the price of admission was the Crazy Horse Monument. Whenever it's finally finished I'm sure it will be, but right now we're far from that. And the view you get from the $11 visitor center admission is really not any better than what you can see from the highway for free. Once they get around to finishing the rest of it and it's not just his face, I'm sure it will be great.

From Crazy Horse I kept heading east and stopped at the infamous Wall Drug Store. It was mostly deserted this time of year, but I managed to get a good deal of my Christmas shopping done, so that was nice.

I stopped for the night in the town of Kadoka, South Dakota. To call it a town is really generous, but it's a good base for hitting up Badlands National Park in the morning.

Which is what I did first thing this morning. And all I can say is that it is stunning and unlike anything else I've ever seen. Driving through, you feel like you've landed on another planet. Seeing it dusted in snow only added to the feeling. I also got a healthy dose of wildlife encounters. Once again, words can't do it justice, so I'll leave it to the pictures.

 

Road Trip Days 15-17: Colorado

Leaving Utah, I started my climb up the winding highways into Colorado. The scenery was beautiful as I made my way to Vail, Colorado. As it turned out, I didn't really get to see much of Vail, because Mother Nature had other plans for me. The snow started shortly after I got to Vail and continued through the night. Happy to be off the roads, I just set up camp at my hotel's restaurant for the night. Snow is always beautiful until you have to drive in it.

The next morning, I had to dust off my Wisconsin driving skills and battle through some nasty roads to Denver. My rental car definitely wasn't made for that.

Thankfully it was a relatively short drive. Although I did learn the hard way that there is apparently a huge shortage of windshield wiper fluid in the state of Colorado, and I of course ran out in the middle of the drive when I needed it most. Eventually I tracked some down, after some significant effort.

Denver was a great break from the trip. I spent two nights with an old friend from college, and it was the first time since Nashville that I spent two nights in a row in the same bed and had a day when I didn't drive. We spent most of our time just relaxing and catching up, and it was wonderful. We did make a visit to  downtown Denver and treated ourselves to some delicious Voodoo Doughnuts, among other things.

 

I also go to do some much-needed laundry. The insane thing was that I found two pieces of glass from my broken sunroof in the clothes that I'd been wearing for the last two weeks. I'm really not sure how that's possible.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm heading north, where it's sure to be frigid but at least there's supposed to be no snow. Fingers crossed.

Road Trip Days 13 and 14: Nevada and Utah

I made it out of LA better than expected. I set my sights for Las Vegas, with one final Route 66 detour on my way. Even though the Route 66 part of my trip was official done, there was one thing in California that I really wanted to see but had missed because of my detour to Joshua Tree. Thankfully, it was right on the route to Vegas.

Just outside Barstow, California is the quirky and utterly delightful Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch.

When I stopped by, I met Elmer himself, the creator of every piece in this fascinating bottle forest. He was working on a new installation that involved a face cutout for people to take pictures and he measured me to factor into his calculation of how tall the woman's face cutout should be. It's such a bizarre idea, but this place is just so charming that it really made my day.

Leaving California on a final positive note, I headed on into Nevada. Before arriving in Las Vegas for the night, I made a detour to Valley of Fire State Park. I still don't understand what is necessary for something to qualify as a National Park as opposed to simply a State Park, but it seemed to me that Valley of Fire had it. The swirling red rocks were unlike anything I'd ever seen.

After my brief detour, I made it to Vegas. I decided to stay in the old downtown Fremont Street district, because I figured I'd been to the Strip enough times and had never seen the other part of Vegas. I always forget how weird and fake Vegas is until I get there. Fremont Street was just as odd as the Strip, but condensed into a three block stretch. But still no one does neon better than Vegas.

Leaving Vegas on my continued journey west, I headed into Utah. Mostly known for Mormonism, Utah has an endless number of amazing National Parks. I'd been to a number when I traveled out west several years ago, but I remember Arches National Park being particularly remarkable, so I decided to stop by again. It was every bit as magical as I remembered.

And now I continue to head east as I wonder how this latest polar vortex will impact my travels. Thankfully I packed that winter jacket I almost didn't bring....