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Fear and Loathing in USA

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00:50 / 04.03.05

I definitely see my plan as being unrealistic considering we're only going for a month, but it's nice to dream. And we could go South there and North back or vice versa, I don't know. The main destination is California and back; as long as we hit San Francisco I'll be happy.

I'd love to see all these amazing places, but it's going to take a lot of little vacations from the sound of it. More and more this is turning into a "Drive forward, go anywhere, find yourself, and just do everything" sort of trip, since anything else just wouldn't be the same. Now, to convince my friends...

12:44 / 04.03.05

My last post reads a little bitter. Was it Bill Callahan who said bitterness is the lowest sin? Anyway I suppose no place is completely without merit. There are some good things to Cincinnati, a healthy music scene for instance. Looks like you've got an ambitious swing planned, xenoss. I'm sure it will be a blast. And next summer you can try it on another continent.

14:12 / 04.03.05

I'm from the west, so I can give some desert entertainment recommendations.

Since your path will probably take you across it at some time, the Bonneville Salt Flats west of Salt Lake City are something to experience. The nice thing is that if you fall asleep at the wheel whilst driving across them, you've nothing to worry about because you could drive off the road and go for miles without hitting anything that would so much as jiggle your car's suspension.

I definitely second the Joshua Tree recommendation, and suggest hanging out in Yosemite valley for a couple of days as well. In the Valley you can skive campsites at Camp 4 with the climbing bums and experience one of the few remaining truly bohemian cultures in America. You'll find the same thing at Josh, and at there the campsites are free to boot.

A swing through southern New Mexico for culinary purposes is also a must. You can tie this in with a trip to Carlsbad Caverns. If you're anywhere within 100 miles of Hatch, New Mexico, you must make a side-trip to have red chile burritos at B&E Burritos in Hatch. It's a tiny brick building about 1/4 mile west of I-25 on the north side of the road, and speaking as a connisseur, it's the best chile rojo con carne I've ever found. I took a 100-mile detour from a trip down to Hueco Tanks, Texas this year just to stop in there, so I can assure you that the food is as good as ever.

16:22 / 04.03.05

Apparently Texas is the size of the whole earth. It takes forever to drive through it.

02:46 / 06.03.05

According to my map, Texas isn't much more than an inch and a half across. It'll take no time to drive it.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

18:48 / 06.03.05

Oh, if you drive thought Minneapolis, you'll have to stop and say hello...I feel like I'm the only Barbelithian here.

As for things to do, there the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, O'Gara's bar (which took over the barber shop Charles Schultz's dad ran and has nice little memorials to them both), the ever-present Mall of America (just for the roller coaster and log flume inside a mall), the Sculpture Garder at the Walker Art Center, First Avenue and Seventh Street Entry (where Purple Rain was filmed), and then drive up north a couple of hours to Itasca where you can see the source of the Mississippi river.

That's not even counting Dreamhaven books, the Guthrie theater, and other stuff...

There's a lot to do here, and I really love this city.

06:13 / 07.03.05

I definitely want to pass through Minnesota, so I'll send you an email or PM or whatever before we set off on the journey. Have you ever been to St. Cloud? I stumbled upon the radio station for St. Cloud University and it's being so good has made me want to visit there ever since.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

03:44 / 08.03.05

Haven't been to St. Cloud, but all of our public radio stations here are damn good. The new music station (non-classical) is about the best music station I have heard since they killed the last non-chain owned station in 1998.

Sounds like a great trip...I may take some of the idea for places in the midwest here and do my own week getaway.

17:35 / 10.03.05

You might find Legends of America useful.

See if you can find "Frozen Dead Guy Days" on there.

18:28 / 10.03.05

Ooh, I found the shop in San Fransisco I was wittering on about. It's called American Rag, and it's at 11305 VanNess Avenue. I know it's only shopping but it's wicked shopping...

14:23 / 12.03.05

Being able to afford first-hand clothing, I'd feel bad getting the secondhand stuff. Fuck all those rich kids going in and stealing the good stuff from the impoverished! My friend always shops at the Salvation Army store. To him I say, If you can afford an Acura RS-X then you can afford new clothes.

08:15 / 15.03.05

Anyway...

I've been thinking about the trip logically, and does it seem like a bit much to anyone else? 3000 miles there and 3000 miles back in four weeks. 50 miles an hour for 10 hours a day would get me 500 miles a day and cross country in 6 days. 12 of 28 days spent just driving and too tired to sight see probably. Another 9 spent gallavanting across the states, and 7 just spent gallavanting through California.

Boiling it all down it seems doable, but I don't know how pleasurable. I'd be fine with flying out to California, renting a car (or bumming one off my uncle), and driving through Cali and some of the bordering states. Then, maybe next year, setting aside two months to do all this and having a blast. But, this whole trip (the idea of it) keeps getting pushed to "later" or "next year"; I feel like if we don't do it now it'll never happen.

I don't know, it seems so wonderful in theory, but the facts are tough. Thoughts?

16:16 / 15.03.05

50 miles an hour? Which country are you driving across again?

The speed limit on the interstates is 75 west of the Mississippi (more or less). I live in Denver, and can get to Florida in two days or to the west coast in a day and a half. You can move pretty quickly between interesting places if you're willing to do long days.

Another "natural wonder" sort of place you might consider stopping through if it's on the way is Zion. Mrs. Mirror also recommends Thunder Mountain in Nevada, which is sort of a bizarre monstrous church built by some mad old indian out of concrete and junkyard bits. Rural Nevada's good in general if you're interested in feeling vaguely like you're in a strange and mildly intimidating foreign country. There's a lot of weird stuff out there.

21:28 / 15.03.05

Yeah, it's 75 mph on all the interstates in the country except around metropolitan areas, I think. I can get to Vermont in two days and two nights. Well, that was with one ticket outside East Fishkill, New York, so things might be different up there.

Poke it with a stick

15:03 / 16.03.05

xenosss, it sounds a hell of a trek, but really, it doesn't feel like it when you actually do it - a couple of years back I went for an East-West roadtrip that worked out something like 4000 miles in 6 days. That included 14 states and a fair bit of sightseeing (and can I just endorse the comments about the Badlands - they're utterly spectacular). If you're in the area, though - don't bother with Mt Rushmore - watch North by Northwest and visit the Crazy Horse monument instead.

00:22 / 18.03.05

North by Northwest. Check.
Crazy Horse. Check.
All this actually happening. Check.

Now I just needs me to finds a car.

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