Road Trips!

[shari schultz]

Milwaukee to Toronto with a group of friends then a side trip to Niagra Falls (Canadian side) where we almost got taken out by a tour bus *memorable*.

 

[U2Girl416]

road trips have been the norm in our family. drives from NY to MA or NY to PA were common, due to relatives living in other states. I'd have to say though, my longest drives have been Syracuse to Chicago and Chicago to Alexandria, VA....both about 12 hrs. Other than that, the longesttttt drive was back in 2000. One of my sisters and I drove from Nashville to Seattle, met up with one of our other sisters and her husband, and then drove all the way back. We hit various national parks, camped out, and visited 17 states

Other fun trips included a spontaneous drive from Geneseo, NY to Baltimore (approx 8 hrs I think) for the Elevation tour after scoring tickets hours before the show and similarily, driving to Hamilton Ontario after getting GA tix.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm taking a mini-road trip to the ocean tomorrow. The weather has been beautiful this week, and I haven't been out there in over a year. It's time.

(If it's only a 2-1/2 hour drive there, does it still count as a road trip? How about a day trip, then?)

 

[beegee]

(If it's only a 2-1/2 hour drive there, does it still count as a road trip? How about a day trip, then?)

2.5 hours officially qualifies as a road trip.

Have fun!

 

[No spoken words]

2.5 hours officially qualifies as a road trip.

Have fun!

She beat me to it. Anything over 2 hours, to me, is a road trip.

Have a blast.

Beegee, sorry to have used a pronoun to refer to you, so cold.

 

[beegee]

Beegee, sorry to have used a pronoun to refer to you, so cold.

It's ok.

You can defrost in Death Valley.

 

[corianderstem]

Thanks! Usually when I drive to Ocean Shores, I spend more time in the car than I do at the beach, and that's okay. It's about the trip as much as the beach.

I can't wait to wade in the surf.

 

[No spoken words]

It's ok.

You can defrost in Death Valley.

 

[The Sad Punk]

If anything over 2 hours is a road trip, then I've had constant road trips all of my life, from Yorke Peninsula to Adelaide. But that's boring. Had a family trip in '95 where we drove from there right up to Queensland.

That was mad.

 

[bammo2]

I've done a month long trip from LA up to Seattle via various National Parks and cities - Yosemite, Redwoods, Mt St Helens, San Francisco, Seattle, Oregon Sand Dunes etc, then down from Seattle back to LA via, amongst other places, Arches NP, Zion NP, Monument Valley, Yellowstone NP, Grand Tetons, Jacskon Hole, Las Vegas. I was camping all the way (apart from in the big cities). It was a trip

I've also done a month long trip driving all around the circumference of Ireland, which was spectacular

I've done a tour around the North Island of New Zealand, which I loved., The South Island is on my to do list

And I've driven up the coast from Melbourne up to Cairns in Australia.

Oh happy happy days. I really need to travel more

 

[beegee]

Lava Pit?

Satanland?

Desert of Terror?

 

[corianderstem]

My trip was a dud. I should have stayed home. Weather between here and somewhere west of Olympia? Great.

Hit thick clouds, did not worry - it's often very cloudy/foggy by the shore until noon or so. Got to the ocean, had a nice lunch. Drove to the spot I like to go to on the beach, ready to set up shop with my little chair, my blanket and sweatshirt, my book and magazines.

Got stuck in the sand. I've been going here for years! I know to stay on the hard-packed sand and to watch the tides. Still got stuck in the sand. I got out to start digging out my wheels, and two girls came along to help, and gave my car a push to get me unstuck.

Yay! 100 feet later? Stuck again. I dug myself out, and two more people came along to push me all the way back to the hard-packed sand, and I got the hell off the beach. Several people told me the sand was looser than normal lately, so it wasn't just sheer stupidity on my part.

Went to the other part of the beach, where I can park in a blacktop lot and then walk down to the beach. It was cold. And windy. And slightly misting. It was 1:00, and there was no sign of the clouds parting anytime soon. I walked along the beach for a while, figuring I'd get my walking in before going back to my car for my beach-sittin' gear.

But when I got back to the car, I felt just wiped out and bummed out. It was cold and miserable at the beach - it was no day for beach sittin'. So I turned around and went home.

And got lost in Aberdeen, home of Kurt Cobain. That city sucks, and the confusing roads and one-way streets aren't the only reasons. Every time I go to the ocean, I get confused going through Aberdeen - it's seriously confusing, and the signs are only of some help. This was the first time in years I'd actually ended up going a completely wrong way.

Then of course I hit rush hour traffic all the way between Olympia and Seattle, but the sun was out (of course - as soon as I hit Aberdeen, it cleared up, although I could still see the thick clouds out by the water), my iPod was turned up, and all was almost well.

But I wish I'd stayed home instead. What a wasted trip.

 

[zonelistener]

Um, isn't Australia and the U.S. fairly similar in size?

 

[The Sad Punk]

Um, isn't Australia and the U.S. fairly similar in size?

That's not what I was taught!

 

[cydewaze]

I'm burnt out on road trips at the moment. After driving 16 hrs from here to Temagami, ON, CA and back, then taking a short road trip with some guys from the local Mini club, I've about had it with driving for a while.

Um, isn't Australia and the U.S. fairly similar in size?

United States — Area (Total): 9,826,630 SQ KM
Australia — Area (Total): 7,686,850 SQ KM

 

[corianderstem]

USA!
USA!
USA!


Oh, uh .... sorry.

 

[zonelistener]

That's not what I was taught!

United States — Area (Total): 9,826,630 SQ KM
Australia — Area (Total): 7,686,850 SQ KM

I'm just saying your map is a bit distorted. And I think Cydewaze's total area includes Alaska...but that just proves my point that they are similar in size.

 

[beegee]

And got lost in Aberdeen, home of Kurt Cobain.

That's excellent.

I would love to go there.

Sorry to hear that your trip was such a bummer.

 

[corianderstem]

I would love to go there.

Because of the Cobain connection? Or just because? While the area in general is nice (due to the proximity to the ocean and all the trees and such), I can't really give much to recommend it. From what I've seen (admittedly only from my car window and the occasional pit stop), it seems run-down and sagging, and not in the charming Americana small town way.

I'm a fan of small and smallish towns, especially on road trips, but this is one of those that only strikes me as one I'd like to drive through as fast as possible.

... if I could only make it through without getting lost! (And I always get stuck behind logging trucks.)

 

[beegee]

Because of the Cobain connection? Or just because?

Because of the Cobain connection.

I love going places where things happened.

 

[corianderstem]

Gotcha. I don't know what "historic" places there are to see ... or even what's still there from when he lived there.

 

[beegee]

I would go anyway.

Heck, I've gone to a vacant lot to see where Chris McCandless once lived in a trailer.

 

[europop2005]

When I was in Italy this summer, we took a Vespa (little scooter) from the Tuscan coast all the way into Florence, it was a perfect summer day, and we rode through mountains, sunflower fields, farms, open road, highways, it was a 2 1/2 hour ride, and besides the butt itch of the seat, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

 

[corianderstem]

Heck, I've gone to a vacant lot to see where Chris McCandless once lived in a trailer.

Wow! Well, if you ever make it up this way, let me know.

 

[beegee]

Wow! Well, if you ever make it up this way, let me know.

That would be fun!

I wrote about my trip to the McCandless lot in my journal.

beegee's possible federal offense

 

[The Sad Punk]

I'm just saying your map is a bit distorted. And I think Cydewaze's total area includes Alaska...but that just proves my point that they are similar in size.

That's bullshit. I can't believe you'd say something like that. Do numbers control your entire life? I know well and good that my picture is to scale, as I am an astronaut geographer.

 

[BonosBaby12]

i road trips!!!

I drove practically cross country from Jersey to Arizona. 16 states in 16 days. it was incredible!!!

soooo in the mood for another trip!!!

You could always drive from NJ to Chicago

The longest road trip I have ever been on was from Chicago to Delaware. Make that trip a few times out of the year and it usually ranges between 12-13 hours.

Another trip was from Chicago to MN and that one was 7 hours in the winter. Want to do more roadtripping!

 

[yolland]

Every few years my older brothers and I take a road trip back to our hometown in Mississippi to visit friends (BB King is also from our hometown, and a couple times we were able to time our trip with his annual outdoors 'homecoming' gig in nearby Indianola, which was awesome). Usually I drive from Indiana to Pennsylvania to pick up my next oldest brother, then we drive through West Virginia and Virginia to our oldest brother's home in the mountains in North Carolina, then from there we take backroads through Tennessee and sometimes Alabama to Mississippi. It's always interesting to see which places seem to have changed or not changed the most since we were kids (Virginia gets our most-visibly-changed award; West Virginia and Mississippi are in a tie for least-changed).

One time we took the kids on a long camping/road trip up into Ontario, over to Quebec, then down through the Adirondacks on our way back. Exhausting at times, but very memorable--lots of great wildlife-spotting in Canada (moose, bear, wolves, whales) and the town in the Adirondacks we stayed in was lovely.

I didn't do much of the driving either time, but in India I've 'road-tripped' from Chennai to Kolkata via Varanasi, as well as all along the west coast from Mumbai southwards--not a trip for travelers who require lots of creature comforts nor for nervous drivers, but IMO, by far the best way to see the countryside if you've got the time. It's probably a bizarre thing to choose as a memento but in my office, I've got a framed photo I took in some tiny one-street town in Kerala somewhere which greeted visitors with a gigantor vertical billboard, all in screaming electric pastels like those old Bollywood-movie billboards, only this was of a beaming, chubby-cheeked, thoroughly affable-looking Josef Stalin. My travel companion and I stopped to get gas there and we did ask the lady behind the counter about the sign, but neither of us understood enough Malayalam to make out her answer, except that her attitude was clearly an exasperated, "oh that ***damn thing."



I'd love to do a road trip across the Great Plains and into the Rockies someday--I've seen next to nothing of the West.

 

[corianderstem]

I'd love to do a road trip across the Great Plains and into the Rockies someday--I've seen next to nothing of the West.

I love the Plains - they're beautiful in their own way. And you have to see the West - desert, mountains (like, big, pointy, snow-capped mountains, not the big rolling hill type mountains elsewhere) ... heck, we've even got a rainforest out here!

I love the diversity of geography in America.

 

[Zoots]

in India I've 'road-tripped' from Chennai to Kolkata via Varanasi, as well as all along the west coast from Mumbai southwards--not a trip for travelers who require lots of creature comforts nor for nervous drivers, but IMO, by far the best way to see the countryside if you've got the time. It's probably a bizarre thing to choose as a memento but in my office, I've got a framed photo I took in some tiny one-street town in Kerala somewhere which greeted visitors with a gigantor vertical billboard, all in screaming electric pastels like those old Bollywood-movie billboards, only this was of a beaming, chubby-cheeked, thoroughly affable-looking Josef Stalin. My travel companion and I stopped to get gas there and we did ask the lady behind the counter about the sign, but neither of us understood enough Malayalam to make out her answer, except that her attitude was clearly an exasperated, "oh that ***damn thing."

Haha that's interesting! Was this when you visited India or did you live there? I'm originally from Chennai but have only traveled by train over there.