Just drove across the country

Indianapolis was our only health hazard -- a possible bed bug bite. We were super cautious and kept the luggage in the  hotel bathrooms the whole trip. We ended up staying at Marriots (not especially by design, but we do like the Fairfields), they just seem to own every chain. One thing I learned -- don't stay near airports if you want a good night's sleep.

Nor much to look at but empty fields through Illinois and Missouri. Lots of windmills. No way Trump is going to get rid of them all. Once again I was reminded how much "empty" space is out there in middle America compared to the Coasts.

We picked a two lane highway just above I-70 to take us to St Joseph MO, which is just north of Kanssas City, Mo. Weather was ok and most importantly, the roads were dry. Got to St Joseph Thursday late afternoon and it seemed like a nice little suburban college town. Ate dinner at a chain restaurant (that played loud boomer music) which was suprisingly ok. The ribs were even gluten-free!

>Welcome to the West<

Thanks Judit -- technically, welcome BACK to the West. I'm an East coaster who transplanted to Bay Area / Sonoma / Peninsula for 25 years starting with the 84/85 NYE shows before elderly / ill parents situation caused a return to Maryland in 2010. We used to visit regularly before Covid but haven't been back in 4 years. (And you and I actually met long ago outside the Kaiser when you were selling your stamped cards and I was hawking holographic foil stickers, but that's another story.)

We left St Joseph, headed North through Missouri where the fields changed to hills and hooked up with I-80, with the intention of taking that across Nebraska all the way to Sacramento. After a full day of driving we made it to Sydney, Nebraska by Friday evening. 

On the way..... I've been to a lot of festivals but not this one:

We're nuts, but didn't have time to "hang out" but I'm sure it would have been a ball.

Also cruised thru the parking lot of Strategic Air Command. Didn't stop to visit in case of impending nuclear war -- this place would definitely be targeted. 

Sat morning we crossed into Wyoming and met our first "bad" weather around Laramie -- lots of wind. Let me tell you, passing trucks at 80 mph in the wind sucks. Two hands gripping the steering wheel for hours. Exhausting.

Entering Utah we encountered our first snowstorm headed into Salt Lake City. It was getting dark and that and the flurries made driving across those mountains very scary. I'm sure the locals don't mind but I hated the curvy wet roads. I was the old guy in the slow lane whenever possible.

Saturday night in Salt Lake City was a highlight of our trip. We didn't really know it but we had booked a "luxury" Marriot in the center of downtown. Looked out the window and:

I kinda liked SLC. It seemed manageable for a big city and the surrounding scenery was beautiful dusted with snow. (Lotta well off healthy looking white people around but a fair amount of homeless in the streets, too.) We treated ourselves to a nice meal and a well deserved hot tub and headed to Reno on Sunday. 

I'm semi-familar with Nevada so it felt like an easy 500 mile drive to Reno. Ya better have gas in the car and use a rest stop when you can. 

Ended up by the ballpark there. I didn't even know they had one.

We carried our own breakfast and lunch food with us in a small cooler, but decided to treat ourselves to a breakfast Monday morning on our way out of town. The place was called Grate Full Garden. How could we not? Highly recommended. Gluten free and vegi options, if needed.

Monday we had a short trip --- only 4 hours to the Bay area. Hello California!

Luckily the Donner Summit was snow free, as I wasn't carrying chains. I was driving a Subaru Forrester with all wheel drive but was resigned to turn back if the weather was worse.

We left I80 in Sacramento and took the I5 down to Tracy and cut across the San Mateo bridge.

Holy shit! The Bay area traffic is even worse than the Balto/DC corridor. It super sucked but luckily we were going the opposite direction from a 20 mile traffic jam. And it was only early afternoon.

Hello fog. I remember you.

We landed in Redwood City, just short of 3,000 miles. So 6 days.

Yesterday I mostly slept but made it to Crystal Springs Reservoir to soak in the sun.

Ya gotta love the Bay area. Phil might be the surprise guest Sunday night at the Guild just down the street. Stu Allen is playing there Friday. Molly Tuttle later in the month. Grateful Dead Thursday at the Redwood Fox, which is even closer. Etc Etc. 

Not really here for the music this trip, but so far we have tickets to the Fillmore for Phil and Jerry's Middle Finger in Felton pre NYE.

Love to meet some Zoners in 3D (but please don't tell my wife about the silly stuff I post -- shhhhhhhh that's just between you and me). 

Thanks all and Local. 

I'd do the usual buy you guys a drink at the bar offer, but as we all know at a crowded bar like the Fillmore it's not usually feasible during a show. We'll see what shakes out as our schedule firms up.

FYI - We're totally normal 60s type people (that's mostly age related). I'm sure some of you Bay area folks would recognize me (especially the Phil/ Kimock/ Zero/ Dinosaurs/ earlyString Cheese crowd) as aside from my hair color I pretty much look the same as I did 20-30 years ago.

We traveled thru a fair amount of Red States. I have to say, everyone we met throughout the trip (mostly waiters/waitresses and hotel check-in people) were very friendly (knowing that we're white, old and spending money). And we didn't take the wife's car with the coexist and peace stickers. We obviously didn't talk politics, but we had a chat or two with folks. My overall impression is that America is full of friendly people. 

We saw some Trump billboards and signs, but not as many as I see in Maryland. No pro Biden ones. But I don't see them in Maryland either.

And also -- the highway rest stops were surprisingly clean and un-threatening. Granted, we were only traveling in daylight. The ones in CA were probably in the worse shape but there were cleaning crews present. 

I'd like to put some faces to Zoner names.(Jill is probably the only Zoner I've met in 3D and it was fleeting and ticket-related at the Tower in Philly many many moons ago. She wouldn't even remember.)

I won't make it to a Zoner pre show as I promised my wife a trip to Japantown beforehand and she would be slightly annoyed if I spent the night raving to "strangers" about things she wouldn't relate to (hey, they're not strangers to me).

At the Fillmore I used to frequently hang upstairs on the "corner bar" side, where it was usually less crowded and easy to get a drink. But I was single then and I could cruise around at will. Long time gone. Sunday I'll probably be in some "sweet spot" acting paranoid about getting breathed on.

Mike look for this guy:

Code word - StoneSculptor

Ken, you'll recognize this then. I didn't realize it was up at  8,000 feet. I had to research why it was there in the first place. (Nice place to pee, too.)

[A rich Wyoming landowner, Charles Jeffrey, put up the money, and the Parks Commission hired Robert Russin, Wyoming's best-known sculptor and a big fan of Lincoln. Unlike the Commission, Russin knew exactly what he wanted: a giant Lincoln head at Sherman Summit east of Laramie, the highest point on the old coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway, 8,878 feet above sea level. He said he'd been dreaming about it since 1947.

Perched atop a hollow 30-foot-high concrete pedestal faced with 120 tons of Wyoming granite, the Lincoln head was unveiled with much fanfare on October 18, 1959. Its serendipitous Lincoln Highway location, however, didn't last long. After less than ten years the head was moved to its current spot at the Summit Rest Area on Interstate 80 -- losing a couple of hundred feet in elevation (and its key excuse for existing, really) but gaining a vast new audience. It can be seen from quite a distance on the freeway, looking uncomfortably similar to box-bound Captain Pike from Star Trek: The Original Series.

The 12.5-foot-high head sits on tiny shoulders, like a cartoon caricature, and seems to be sagging from its own weight. According to the official Summit Rest Area brochure, Russin's sculpture is "the only monument to Abraham Lincoln along the Lincoln Highway" and "the largest bronze head in the U.S."]

definitely worth the drive (Sonoma County yesterday)

Went to a dispensary in Sebastopol. A wall full of $30 half ozs in see thru bags are pretty enticing too. Besides the price, it's so nice to see weed that's not dried out and sold in dark little jars. 

Wonderful to have redwood trees in the back yard (San Mateo County). 

Mike, in case you are reading this thread - on Sunday I'll do my best to be milling around the poster room upstairs early intermission looking like I'm trying to find someone. I'll be wearing my green Jerry in the moon baseball cap. 

8,311 miles / 49 days / 19 States / 15 nights in hotels / 3 GD related shows in Bay Area / 3 new wheel bearings 

Got home yesterday after a more leisurely 9 day trip from CA to MD mostly along I-40  (which surprisingly included some fairly big earthquakes in Oklahoma City).

Thankfully, yesterday's drive through Virginia was the only time where we had to deal with treacherous roads (to make it home in time to miss the incoming storm). We saw more accidents in the final couple hours than we did on the entire trip.

3 quick takeaways:

1. People in California have more weed than they know what to do with.

2. Subarus aren't the indestructible road warriors I thought they were.

3. It's impossible not to gain weight on a long roadtrip. Even if one is a vegetarian or a Gluten-Free carnivore. 

Pride - Overall American people along the Interstates (at least restaurant and hotel staff) are really nice. And really White. And apparently perfectly happy to live in their Fox News bubble.  It's kinda scary. But we purposely didn't talk politics with anyone.

(I purposely took the car with just the discreet GD Stealie and not the one with Coexist and Peace Sign bumperstickers to blend in more.) 

Culturally, there was an amazing amount of diversity around the Bay Area, and every town seemed to have a Mexican, Asian and Indian restaurant, but we hardly ran into any Black folk in the heartland. And sadly there was a lack of hippie-looking people (well, it was winter and maybe they were all in Hawaii).  We did run into one obvious Deadhead at a gas station in AZ, but that was it.

Leaving California (by way of Bay Area> Sierra foothills > down Hwy 99 to Burbank to I-40).

Typical LA sights: cars, palm trees, mountains in distance...

Followed by weird roadside stuff on the Interstate:

Mon 1/8 - Day 2 – Burbank to Williams, AZ 7.5 hrs (433.5 mi) via I-40 E

High desert scenery was rugged and quintessentially Wild Wild West.

I think Barstow had the highest gas prices in the Country -- regular coming in at $5.79. But you'd better gas up. 

The terrain in Arizona, while similar to SW California, is much more stark. And the ground has a reddish cast.

Williams, Arizona is the Gateway to the Grand Canyon and a little town that milks their Rout 66 connection. At 6,700 ft, it already has some snow on the ground. We skipped the South Rim detour, as snow and ice were forecast on the roads to and from. 

Road trip tip: That was the best Best Western I've ever stayed in. It was more like a lodge than typical roadside hotel filled with Hopi Kachina dolls. (One looked like Jerry, if Jerry was a Hopi shaman). They had a restaurant there so we didn't have to leave, once we checked in. They serve hearty food and drinks in funny glasses.

Rt 66 Western style

looked like a cheap postcard

old and new

they also love their transportation up in the air

Tues 1/9 – Day 3 – Williams > to Winslow AZ – a short day (200 miles) so we could explore a bit along the way.

We pulled off the road to explore a lava bed and crater as well as a couple of ghost town ruins and abandoned roadside trading posts. One, called Two Guns, was a canyon settlement that dated back 2,000 years and featured a cave in which the Navajos slaughtered a bunch of Apaches 150 years ago. Unfortunately, everything cool was covered in graffiti. 

Even the desert was painted (Painted Desert County Park, 18 miles off I-40, is in the middle of nowhere and worth visiting, especially if you skipped the Grand Canyon. It's free and you can drive right up to the edge.)

I was always a Toyota guy but tried a Subaru Forester instead of the Rav 4 because the Toyota had a shitty looking grill that year. It's ok, I've had it since 2016, but I had to start throwing money at the undercarriage at only 75,000 miles. New control arms before I left town and 3 wheel bearings when I hit California (the car was making a weird droning sound). I honestly don't ever remember replacing a control arm or a wheel bearing before. (Trust me, Menlo Park is not the cheapest place to get repairs done. I cheaped out and only got 3 replaced as the passenger side somehow goes first, so they say.) Had to do it, though. Ya gotta go at least 70 mph to keep up with traffic -- and sometimes 75 or 80. 

I know East coast weather is rough on cars, but I blame the shitty roads. Fucking USA can't even fill it's potholes or build a highway that lasts. The Romans managed. It's a sign of the decline of our civilization, for sure.

The wife has a 2014 Outback, which seems tougher. We like it cause it can tow 3,500 lbs and we have a small teardrop camper.

Ken I read every Subaru forum, knowingly went to a ripoff Subaru dealership in RedWood City, and finally to "Stress-Free Auto Repair" (I liked the name) and apparently it's common to have to replace Forester control arms, associated parts and wheel bearings in the 70K + range. That news had me researching the cheapest place in the Bay area to buy a Toyota RAV4 hybrid (Petaluma). I was seriously thinking about trading the Subaru in while the trade in value was still good. But those hybrids cost lots of money without a rebate.

We made it to Winslow by nightfall.

And if you're a babyboomer tourist in Winslow, AZ, you're gonna go see this sight no matter how jaded you are (It's pretty much the main attraction in town).

I don't want to sound like TripAdvisor, but if you ever are visiting Winslow, be sure to stay at La Posada -- a remodeled old railway hotel that has been turned into a hotel / art gallery / restaurant full of cool furniture, quasi-religious sculptures, and gardens. Some of the art is quite psychedelic .It was a nice change from the usual corporate places and it is moderately priced.

^ Lloyd....Sweet ride --- and I see you also subscribe to the theory "Clean cars drive better" (not to be confused with "Dirty trucks drive better"). 

But a) I'm glad I didn't have to buy three new wheel bearings in Menlo Park for that, and b) even the finest piece of German-engineered machinery will get destroyed by the potholes in this great Country of ours. I hope you find a nice stretch of autobahn. There's a nice 12 mile straight-away on the outskirts of Winslow I know about on the way to the Painted Desert.

Wed 1/10 - Day 4 – Winslow > Petrified Forest > Albuquerque NM – 4 hrs (265 mi) via I-40 E

Besides the petrified wood and petroglyphs, the coolest thing about Petrified Forest National Park was the vast emptiness of the place. It seems like you can see hundreds of miles in every direction. There was hardly anyone else there when we went on a midweek winter morning, which reinforced the feeling of being a speck in the universe. I'd like to go there on a starry night.

These rock cylinders were once logs that got washed down a waterway and got covered with silt about 200 million or so years ago. 

Different colored minerals seeped in to replace the organic compounds.

Petroglyphs carved into the corner of this rock. They don't let you get right up close to them (but no one is around to stop you if you wanted to hike down into a gnarly canyon), but you can see a couple dozen from the overlook.

Erosion creates the formations and reveals the buried logs.

Since there is nothing modern around in sight besides the car you drove up in, it all feels quite prehistoric.

An observation: When traveling through Arizona and New Mexico I never read or heard the words "Native American." It was all "Indian" this and "Indian" that in books, signage, advertisements, etc.  Granted I didn't spend much time there off the highway, but I was surprised nonetheless. 

^ that's what I figured. It just gets so confusing when these are getting so prolific at truckstops on the interstates. You want food when you've just crossed miles of the Great Salt Barrens?... you're eating Biryani, brother.

(picture not mine)

Thurs 1/11 – Day 5 – Albuquerque to Sante Fe NM – 1 hr (64.1 mi)

Another recommended stop if you are near Sante Fe -- Ojo Hot Springs. The place has a restaurant and lodging as well as a spa. Well worth the hour detour off I-40.

It was in the single digits with snow on the ground, so an anticipated night soak never happened, but it was great soaking in the various pools and tubs before starting the long drive back to the East Coast the following day. 

 Day 6 - Santa Fe to Oklahoma City 8 hrs (534 mi) via I-40 E

We had flirted with a little snow here and there but that morning was the first time we had to break out the East Coast Ice Scraper.

Sad to see the SouthWest disappear in the rear view mirror. New Mexico seems like a a livable place, though I heard Albuquerque's violet crime rate is scary. I haven't spent enough time in Sante Fe to  get to know it and I'm pretty clueless about the rest of the State.

Texas. The make you feel real welcome with giant billboards along the highway that remind you Marijuana Possession Is a Felony. 

Thet have lots of windmills.

And giant crosses that could double as windmills to power the church if the parishioners were a little more inventive.

Oklahoma seemed less tense than Texas but I hear they are very paranoid of furries invading their school systems. True fact, I read it in today's news. Kids that dress up as critters and don't identity as human have been outlawed.

Folks in OK were apparently denied parties as children and it's made them decorate the landscape like a birthday cake.

As mentioned, the hotel shook real good and I know immediately it was an earthquake --- it was a building shaker one like a big wind hit, not a shimmy one that makes dishes chatter. But while I was in settling down in a Marriott in Oklahoma?  It did not make sense initially. Later I learned they shoot so much waste water into the ground due to fracking, the existing faultline is getting triggered quite often. Thre were two 4.4s that night and some aftershocks. I wonder what their building codes are like out there?

Day 7 – Oklahoma City to Jackson, TN 8.5 hrs (552 mi) via I-40 E

Day 8 –Jackson, TN to Wytheville VA 7.5 hrs (488 mi) via I-40 E and I-81 N

Arkansas -  Didn't bother to take a picture.

Tennessee - they like their pyramids (this one looks slightly out of place):

another one further down the road

Look for a Jerry rest stop coming soon to a highway near you

Nashville looks like the Jetsons now -- I hadn't see it with all the new construction

Day 9 – Wytheville, VA to MD 5.5 hrs (343 mi) via I-81 N

Virginia is mellow but it has some weird stuff going on, too.

I think this disco ball transmitter

is communicating  with this fleet of flying saucers

 One thing I learned: Dry roads are the key to a successful road trip. However, our trip ended in the most dangerous fashion -- icy roads. It was white knuckle driving at points. 

Though we saw more accidents the last couple of hours in Maryland than we did throughout the entire trip, we made it home safely.

The End.