VX Across America! 2006

[Guest Vitamin X]

So, as a couple of you may know, I'm moving cross country, and it's approximately 2 weeks from now. This is the route I'm taking:

I'm going up into Oklahoma because my best friend from high school is there (he goes to OU after doing some time in the Air Force), and thus I can get a place to crash for free for the night and see an old friend, same thing with L.A. (and I got a lot of people to visit there). I know there are several of you along the way that might know a few places, so if anyone knows something to do along the way, places to see, places I should check out to eat, places to stay, let me know here.

 

Also, if anyone knows anything about staying in hostels along the way, and if anyone knows a good way to kill time during a long car trip by oneself (this should be interesting), post it as well.

[kkktookmybabyaway]

You're not wanting to hook up with some of our TSM brethren?

[Slayer]

I can come down to OKC and pull a twofer with Dama

[NYU]

Hey wait, you're not stopping in New York.

[Slayer]

Maybe if he flew Southwest Airlines

[Art Sandusky]

Up to Charleston, then take the scenic route through the Appalachians and across Tennessee. It'll be fun.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I can come down to OKC and pull a twofer with Dama

See, I don't normally chew tobacco, but I would do it in the library just to spot TSM's favorite Oklahoman.

[Angel_Grace_Blue]

Keep a log of the supplies you start with, then add things that happen on your journey. Oregon Trail - The Next Generation!

 

Edit: Don't die of dysentery.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Well at least I won't have to ford any rivers with my `99 Chevy Tracker.

[MarvinisaLunatic]

Dont make a wrong turn at Albuquerque..who knows where you'll end up.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Don't go through New Orleans or Dallas. You're asking for it with that shit. Cut northwest from Mobile to Memphis then due west to OKC.

[Guest Felonies!]

Okay, New Orleans, I get, but I don't know what's so bad about Dallas. That said, I'd take Agent's advice because he doesn't give bad advice. Memphis is pretty cool if you stay in the safe parts. Neat little town with great barbeque. Hit Graceland or the Rock & Soul Museum at FedExForum. The Stax Records Museum is cool, but it's in a shitty neighborhood.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Well, I was going to stay in Baton Rouge (going straight from here to there is only 13 hours) rather than New Orleans which is what I do everytime I've done this trip (I've gone each way from Miami to LA 3 times each throughout my life). There's even a route that you can take to avoid New Orleans specifically (the 210, I believe it is) that expedites you to Baton Rouge. Memphis freaks me out only because of the potential for bad and god forbid snowy weather, plus taking a route I never have before.

[Black Lushus]

well, at least you are smartly going through non-wintery states.

[Guest CWMwasmurdered]

Prince Rupert makes it on the map but not the Provincial Capital?

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Okay, New Orleans, I get, but I don't know what's so bad about Dallas.

 

Ever been there? Texas is fuckin' weird.

[Black Lushus]

Okay, New Orleans, I get, but I don't know what's so bad about Dallas.

 

Ever been there? Texas is fuckin' weird.

 

Indeed...the only decent spot in Texas is San Antonio...the rest is crap.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

It's not so much bad or ugly or anything, the people are just bizarre. In conversation with Milky once, he likened them to pod people. Very accurate.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Well, I was going to stay in Baton Rouge (going straight from here to there is only 13 hours) rather than New Orleans which is what I do everytime I've done this trip (I've gone each way from Miami to LA 3 times each throughout my life). There's even a route that you can take to avoid New Orleans specifically (the 210, I believe it is) that expedites you to Baton Rouge. Memphis freaks me out only because of the potential for bad and god forbid snowy weather, plus taking a route I never have before.

 

The Memphis route is fine, trust me. Plus, you'd be taking US 49 up through Mississippi. Think of the opportunities to see the locals. Memories, man.

 

I went through Mississippi on the way to Mardi Gras, and while it was the ugliest and most boring drive I'd ever done, I kind of wished I'd strayed off the interstate to see what the state was really like. I passed through Memphis on the same trip. Traffic was passable and the roads were decent. Weather was fine, too, and this was in February. No icy roads or any of that shit.

[Guest Felonies!]

Okay, New Orleans, I get, but I don't know what's so bad about Dallas.

 

Ever been there? Texas is fuckin' weird.

We were talking in a class I had one day about Texas's policy of telling schoolchildren to defend themselves from gunmen by using their pencils as makeshift darts. I replied "okay, I think gun beats pencil 9 times out of 10," which got a laugh. Another guy, who was not really too quick on the draw, went "Wait, so pencil beats gun once?" like a minute later after we'd moved on.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Are you taking the turnpike? I've only traversed it once and didn't like it all, though I suppose it's the most convenient route for you.

[Guest]

That drive from Oklahoma City to Barstow is going to be the boringest drive of your entire life.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Kansas is worse. What is that? The I-40? Dave Letterman made a really good joke about that one time reminiscing about family vacations. He said they'd get a little over halfway, then someone would say "Boy, this sumbitch is long." My worst was south all the way through Mississippi like I mentioned, Kansas is 2nd, and whatever the fuck ran through the Oklahoma panhandle was so bad I've repressed it in my memory.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

I mentioned the Florida Turnpike up there and boy, let me tell you. There's something just so unpleasant and gauche about that stretch of road. Maybe it's the tourist information centers every eight miles (just about anyone not using I-95 but still traveling south to Disney World has to hit the Turnpike). Or the toll booths. Toll booths! I loathe those things. My only other adulthood experience dealing with toll booths was a road trip up north me and some friends took five years ago. The Jersey Turnpike was interstate robbery. And have I mentioned that, when we were going north on the Jersey Turnpike, without ever changing lanes, we somehow got misdirected and found ourselves going south? I hate turnpikes.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Anytime myself and various friends have pondered road trips to California, inevitably we considered the grim possibility that the stretch of I-10 from Texas to California was as soul-crushing and desolate as the stories we'd heard.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

The desert isolation is at least interesting to me, that prairie shit though..god.

[Red Baron]

Its like when most of my buddies left from my area out to Calgary. It's all nice going through Ontario, but once you hit west of Winnipeg and go through Saskachewan...Flatness indeed with the occaisional silo.

 

 

Maybe you've answered this VX, but why not go through Mormon country? (Utah) Seems quicker.

[Hawk 34]

Its like when most of my buddies left from my area out to Calgary. It's all nice going through Ontario, but once you hit west of Winnipeg and go through Saskachewan...Flatness indeed with the occaisional silo.

 

 

Maybe you've answered this VX, but why not go through Mormon country? (Utah) Seems quicker.

 

In the first post, he said he wanted to visit friends in LA.

[Slayer]

Kansas is worse. What is that? The I-40? Dave Letterman made a really good joke about that one time reminiscing about family vacations. He said they'd get a little over halfway, then someone would say "Boy, this sumbitch is long."

I-70, and it isn't that bad. I-80 from Lincoln, NE to Cheyenne, WY beats that, hands down.

 

I'm sure the desert interstate stretches beat any midwest interstate stretch though. I-80 from Salt Lake City to Reno looks rather painful, especially the portion from SLC to the NV border, which includes the longest stretch between interstate exits (about 40 miles)

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

Just out of curiousity, are you guys saying these places are shitty because you actually checked out the towns, or because of the roads? It sounds like most of you are complaining about shitty highway systems.