Last Thursday I returned to Ann Arbor after a 16-day road trip across Canada and the Eastern United States. It was a 3,200 mile trip as compared to my trip back from Seattle which was 5,400 miles. In the past 3 months I have been to 27 states, 2 Canadian provinces and the District of Columbia. After all that I have concluded my major domestic travels for this summer.
I wanted to write a few posts as I went along, but since I didn't bring my laptop and I didn't have a whole bunch of free time it ended up all piling up until I got back to Ann Arbor, so this one may be a doozy. Here is a map of my trip. Also, I hope you like selfies, because there is at least two selfies in this post.
I should start with the night before I left. I had won the Charley's Bar Trivia Tournament of Champions and our team's prize was a free party bus to a Tigers game (which they won). We went with most of the Charley's staff and we drank on the way there, during the game, and on the way back. When I woke up the next morning I was quite hungover and I didn't get out of Ann Arbor until a bit later than I had anticipated.
Nevertheless on Wednesday July 31st I crossed into Canada and headed towards Toronto. I had never been to Toronto and drove into town in the late afternoon. I checked out downtown and the pro hockey hall of fame. I made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing a McLobster which is a McDonald's lobster sandwich that is only sold in Canada. It was gross. Overall I really liked Toronto and thought it was a really modern and clean city (except for the guy smoking crack on the street where I parked my car).
I learned that the Rodgers Center in Toronto is actually named after Aaron Rodgers
Toronto was a bit of a contrast to Montreal where I headed next. The drive was pretty miserable in the Canadian rain but I did appreciate the hint of Maple syrup that wafted across the countryside. Montreal seemed a little less modern and a little more disheveled, but I still liked the city. I walked around for a few hours and did some touristy things and learned all about Canadian culture which I found to be almost an exact replica of this.
I really liked the Latin Quarter and trying to figure out where to park my car when all the street signs were in French. The next day I drove back to the USA and down to NYC. Driving through the Adirondacks was pretty neat and I kinda liked upstate New York. I drove onto Manhattan and actually had no trouble finding a parking spot near my sisters place in Gramercy Park.
I ate so many meatballs at The Meatball Shop I sprouted a double chin. Ha!
On Friday night we went out got some dinner and drank at a bar that you could only get to by walking through a Five Guys. We hopped bars a bit with some of the old Box guys who were around. The next day we walked the High Line and took a nap before grabbing some dinner. On Sunday we went over to Brooklyn and were in Williamsburg to watch the hipsters in their natural habitat. We got some beers at Brooklyn Brewery and then ate some really good BBQ. It was a pretty good Sunday.
Not the view from my sisters place
On Monday I left early and drove down to DC. I stopped at Byrd Stadium in College Park Maryland to see the newest Big Ten stadium. Once I got into DC I found a McDonald's and internetted my brains out for awhile. Then I met up with my friend Evan who I was staying with. He had some free tickets to a Nationals game so we went down to the waterfront and drank and watched them lose to the Braves by a run. The next night we played bar trivia where we went from dead last at halftime to having a 1 point lead going into the final round. Unfortunately we lost trivia because we answered that the tallest building in the US was the Freedom Tower in NYC and not the Willis Tower in Chicago. Even though we were right, they gave the prize to the other team. Not that it mattered since neither of us would be able to use a $50 gift card to that bar anyways.
Byrd Stadium in College Park - You can't see it behind me but there's really not much to see.
The Capitol of the USA
At a Nats game. They lost, but Teddy won!
Wednesday morning I had planned to drive to Pittsburgh to see my cousin and his family. On the way I took a wrong turn and ended up going on a road towards Gettysburg and said to myself "why not?" and kept going. Gettysburg was really cool and after having watched the 1993 epic film Gettysburg over 200 times in college it was awesome to stand on Little Round Top when Joshua Chamberlain and the rest of the 20th Maine defended the flank on July 2nd, 1863.
Thomas Jefferson Y'all
Memorial to the 20th Maine
I then drove across US route 30 to Bedford, PA where my father was born and raised. I tried to stop in at my aunt and uncle's house but they were not home. I made it to Pittsburgh and my cousin and I went downtown to catch a Pirates game. We bought some $10 tickets from a scalper but just sat directly behind home plate in some really good seats. So the total cost for the three games I attended over those 8 days was $10, not bad at all.
PNC park in Pittsburgh
Before I left I hadn't really planned on where I would go Thursday. I had three options which were going to visit a friend at UVA, camping in West Virginia or heading to Richmond to see Craig. My buddy wasn't around UVA and I didn't really feel like camping so I decided to drive to Richmond for a convenient DC to Pittsburgh to Richmond leg of my trip. I had a great time in Richmond and got pretty sauced. Like every place I wish I had a little bit more time in each city. I have some family in Richmond that I would have loved to visit but since I was only there for a night I really didn't have enough time.
Mountaineer Field at WVU - What a total dump
After sleeping in on Friday I got up and started the drive out to Blacksburg where I was meeting up with some of my family at my cousin's new house. Both my sisters came into town as well so it was pretty neat. We toured the new house which was really cool, especially because the house had a strong Arts and Crafts influence which is my favorite style for homes. On Saturday we floated the New River which we were lucky to do because it had been closed down do to high water levels the week before. I have never floated a river with rapids, and going over the rapids in a tube was a bit exhilarating. I was also responsible for the beer cooler which made things a bit harder as well.
Scott Stadium at UVA
Sunday I drove down to Atlanta to spend two days with my sister in her new place. She had a bunch of chores for me to do like building all the furniture she bought, hanging some curtain rods and relocating a ceiling fan. But I still found time to visit the Jimmy Carter presidential museum and grab dinner with my friend Kiki and her roommate. Tuesday night was my last night in Atlanta so we went out with some of my sisters friends. There were 8 of us and we ended up getting pretty drunk for a Wednesday night. Everyone else had to work except for me so I hope they weren't as hung over as I was.
Lane Stadium at VT
Howard's Rock at Clemson Memorial Stadium
My next drive was up to Columbus and it was my longest drive of the trip. Took all day, and I got into town just in time to meet Zola for some trivia. After we got 4th in trivia (we would have gotten second if my teammates believed me when I said that the Mona Lisa was painted on wood) I drove over to see my friend Dave where I spent the night.
Commonwealth Stadium at Kentucky
On Thursday I made the drive up to Ann Arbor which was uneventful except for the hitchhiker I picked up who turned out to be a little crazy, but that was more entertaining than anything else. I did arrive in time to grab a CIAYCELB which was great because after 2 weeks of eating out, stuffing your face with pizza is probably the best thing you can do for your body. Then that night I ran it back by ordering a Cottage Inn calzone which made me feel a large amount of shame.
Ohio Stadium AKA the Horseshoe at State University of Ohio
But overall it was a great trip and I would totally take it again. The only cities I had never been to were Toronto and Montreal but I liked both of them. By my count I saw 14 old friends and a whole bunch of the USA. I'm ready to not drive a car for awhile though. There are always more place I want to go and more friends that I want to visit. I tried to do as much as possible without spending all summer on the road.
Back in Washington (the state) I usually get my hair cut at a place officially called The Hair Club for Men. A guy from work and I are on the same haircut schedule so we usually go after work to get haircuts and then grab a drink at the Japanese Steakhouse next door. We refer to the barber shop as the "geisha lounge" because it is staffed by all Asian women (except for one token white lady) and caters to giving High-and-Tight haircuts that the sailors and marines. We call the entire strip mall Silverdale's Asian Village because in addition to the Geisha Lounge and Japanese Steakhouse there is a Teriyaki place and a Asian Nail Salon. There goes any hope this post had for being racially sensitive.
I went to the barbershop today in DC for a haircut. I didn't know of one in DC so I looked one up on my iPhone and went to it. It turned out to be a black barbershop, but I went in anyways because they had an open chair and I needed a haircut. The haircut was fine but while I was in there though it really got me thinking.
It seems to me that barbershops are one of the last businesses in America that truly segregated. I think this may be due to two reasons.
First, I think it has a lot to do with the differences between the hair. It probably takes a different skill set to cut hair for white vs black people. As I was getting my hair cut, I couldn't think of a single time that a black person had come in for a haircut while I was at the barber (except for today). I'm not even sure the lady that cuts my hair would know what to do with someone without fine hair. And since she doesn't speak much English, I'm not sure anyone could explain it to her.
Second, I think the there is a cultural aspect to the black barbershop that doesn't exist in white barbershops. Granted, I'm making this statement after only one visit to a black barbershop and several repeated viewings of Barbershop 2: Back in Business. The black barbershop seems like a social event rather then an errand. When I was there today, there were a couple of guys just hanging out and not even getting their hair cut. I would never hang out at my barbershop (even though they do have a pool table).
I think it is interesting that in a society that is becoming more and more inclusive, the strong holdout is none other than the lowly corner barbershop for practical reasons as well as cultural. Although, I'd reckon that churches may be high on the list too. But today, I broke down the final barrier. Or at least I hope they didn't make fun of me after I left.
I've been in DC for a little more than 48 hours. So far I've made a few observations. I've been to DC many times before, but this is my first in a somewhat residential setting.
I've been to "Chinatown" twice and so far I have yet to see a single Chinese person. And it's not like it's just an antiquated term, all the signs are also in Chinese. The Bed Bath and Beyond I was at last night proudly displayed it's name in Chinese. I'm guessing what happened was something like this. The DC government probably decided that other cool cities have a Chinatown and they wanted one too. So they made an area Chinatown and forgot to, you know, actually get Chinese people to live there. I'm sure that's wrong, but it's the way I'm going to rationalize it.
The Top 25 Played list on the iTunes of my mostly unused laptop consists entirely of songs by Hall and Oates and Peter Frampton.
I've only consumed 2 Yeunglings.
People in DC really respect the "fast lane". Whether it be escalators to the Metro, or just the sidewalk. If you ain't movin' fast you best be on the right side.
Without a car, I've gotten used to walking everywhere again. Last time I was living carless was the summer of 2008 when I lived in Chicago. It makes running all my errands no longer a one day event. I can basically only go to one store a day, because I can only buy what I can carry home. Each day, I have to choose the most pressing need and fulfill that. So the winner has been hangers yesterday and then today it was food. Tomorrow is looking like HDMI cable might win.
I said in my birthday post that I wouldn't blog about my job. Which for the most part I don't. But my job has offered me an opportunity to spend the next 7 weeks on a rotational assignment in Washington DC. As this is bloggerific news, I thought I was fit to share.
When I began working I heard of past employees who had done rotations at our headquarters office in DC. By the time I started the rotations had pretty much stopped, but I still thought that they would be a good thing for me to experience. So over the past year I've worked - despite the objections of my management - to secure a rotation. This Sunday I'll be leaving for my big trip to DC.
I've been preparing for the trip. I'm already planning on taking a weekend trip up to NYC and another to a bachelor party in Nashville. I have been contacting all my old friends who live in our nations capitol and letting them get ready for my triumphant arrival. I've arraigned for suitable lodging at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue.
When word got around the office that I was doing this rotation the most common question I was asked was if I would come back. I guess it is rather common for our headquarters to offer jobs to people from the field once they complete their rotations. So who knows, perhaps they'll ask me to move to DC.
I went to DC for New Years. After waking up from a tremendous all-you-can-drink on Friday night, we proceeded directly to the bar at noon on Saturday to watch the Gator bowl. Because of the results we decided just keep drinking all day and all night.
Somewhere around hour 9 of 14 and bar number 4 we began wondering if we were any of us were approaching the title of drunkest man in DC. Clearly, one of us held the title of drunkest man in the bar we were at. But there was no way tell if any of us could claim the title of drunkest man in our nation's Capitol.
Human microchip implants are an existing technology. Cell phones with RFID readers exist. I'd wager that in 40 or 50 years microchips will be widely used in conjunction with cell phones for people to monitor their blood sugar, temp and other body statistics such as BAC. This could be very helpful for people that want to know if they are legal to drive a vehicle or need an insulin shot.
So it stands to reason that it could be possible to create a phone app that compares the BAC for a large number of people and output over what geographic area you are the drunkest man. I'm pretty sure there have been a few times that I've contended for DMIA. I've at least broached the top-100, and definitely have been the drunkest man in Ann Arbor. But until the future catches up, I'll have no way to know for sure.
