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For those of you following along the last week, thanks for reading. It’s really been a great time getting out here, allowing me to reorient my perspective on a lot of mundane day to day problems that had been hanging over me recently. I’m starting the new job on Monday and am much looking forward to it.
States seen: UT, NV, CA.
Total/daily miles driven: 3690.9/938.6
Number of traffic violations in San Francisco: 17
Time spent in San Francisco before first traffic violation: 1 minute 58 seconds
*I won $0.75! And only had to spend $1.25 to get that.
ps. My full photoset from the trip is here…
States seen: ID, UT.
Total/daily miles driven: 2967.5/215.1.
Number of cracked windshields: 1
SPECIAL GUEST BLOG FEATURE!!11! Mikey speakz
okay, so a few things need to be clarified. Salt Lake isn’t as dry as they lead on. went to the car for old skunk Modello, temp is 99, when i decided to walk to the gas station because, well i did see a hot biker chick, but more so because i saw two fellows with a case of Bud light. I was nervous at first about buying beer here after all i had heard, but it was cheaper than anywhere else i bought beer, $5.99 for a 6 pack, and no problems.
With that said, Nano just asked did anything exciting happen today. -pause to breath in- Actually a lot has happened today. Only a few hundred miles driven. But i think the realization that this is really happening, i mean Nano’s move, has set in. Salt Lake, which we haven’t seen yet, seem incredible, but it is dwarfed in our minds for the ultimate prize of San Fran tomorrow, a grueling 12 hour drive. This is for all intense and purposes the end of the trip. Tomorrow symbolizes a return to jobs, responsibilities, and the day to day world.
America is beautiful, vast and welcoming. I am honored to escort my friend to a new life and proud of his choices. Sorry, in light of my lame post it is time to take my leave and Venture once more into the breach by painting Salt Lake red. Stay tuned for Nano’s regularly scheduled post once we are done.
mikey out.
States seen: WY, MT, ID.
Total/daily miles driven: 2752.3/560.2.
Number of violations of the “No Chain Restaurants” policy: 1
Number of children seen playing in the Old Faithful “thermal area”: 2
Number of children scaled by boiling water, acid pit or magma, per posted warning: 0
ps. It’s consensus that my driving partner has completely lost his mind. He won’t stop singing about peas and unicorns. I actually like him better this way.
pps. I may have failed to mention that we almost hit a smallish baby deer on the way back from Devil’s Tower yesterday. We slowed down, another followed across, and we were on our way. I was reminded of this today as we approached Yellowstone at a healthy 60mph clip and a fully sized adult deer sprinted right to left across the highway directly in front of us. MV was driving and slammed on the brakes before the deer cleared our front end by about six feet. If he had stopped, we woulda had a big bloody broken-glass broken-deer broken-us sized mess.
States seen: SD, WY.
Total/daily miles driven: 2192.1/501.9.
Number of (incredibly threatening) male bikers / (non-threatening) Wall Drug signs seen: 40,000/150.
Number of female bikers seen: 6
Percent of car occupants willing to risk life and limb to compliment biker chick physique and tattoo placement: 50%
PS. I haven’t had to hurt Mike yet though he’s pushing his luck stealing my gchat.
UPDATE: I was remiss not to mention that Sundance, WY is not named after the Sundance Kid, rather the opposite. The Sundance Kid spent some time in jail here (either “a few nights” according to a grizzled old biker dude in the bar here last night or 18 months if we trust the wikipedia), thus drew his nickname from the town. Sundance, UT was later named such after the Sundance Kid, so is indirectly named after the town as well, as is the film festival.
States seen: IL, WI, MN, SD.
Total/daily miles driven: 1690.2/655.6.
MPG: Too tired to do math. Thirty something. Mike drives like a maniac on fire.
The hope for tomorrow is Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil’s Tower, and on to Yellowstone. Stay tuned, it should get better from here on out.
*not at Angelic Brewing Co. It appears they’ve gone out of business. 
States seen: PA, OH, IN, MI, IL.
Deer carcasses/rainbows seen: 2/4.
Total/daily miles driven: 1034.6/574.9.
Total/daily MPG: 34.8/33.8. Today’s average was a bit worse than yesterday, likely due to the lack of long downhill segments to go-go gravity boost down. But it’s probably the best that we’ll have from now on as the human anchor has joined the crew.
ps. Thanks to la papa de KKV for dinner & Chicagoland entertainment…
pps. Happy 8/8/08! Day of Flickr and Olympic opening ceremony too!
ppps. Saw Red Sox lose on TV at the bar despite wearing the hat bpoo gave me. The (exceedingly cute) waitress liked it, as she was originally from Newton.
Aside for tomorrow morning: will someone please remind my copilot to heed the following dictum…
1 And this is the law ye shall follow when traveling with brothers, whether by chariot, camel, donkey, cart pulled by slave, shoulders of slave, small boat, leviathan, silverback gorilla, or another personal conveyance. 2 The owner of the vehicle shall always be the pilot, unless leprosy hath taken his legs. The pilot must always wear a safety girdle. 3 He who wishes to have the second-best seat may only declare so after leaving the door of the temple, the tax collector’s house, a den of iniquity, or any other place. He, too, shall wear a safety girdle.
After that, it was a hella lot of highway, trucks, rain and mist (no gorillas). I went through Scranton, made obligatory unfunny Dunder Mifflin jokes to self, then shortly thereafter passed the exit for the actual town of Mifflinville. Exciting, but not sufficiently so to stop. KPH called from Hawaii and tried to convince me that there there weren’t any active volcanoes there. This turns out to be disinformation.
States seen: MA, CT, NY, PA
Miles driven: 459.7
Overall MPG: 36.2!! – The hypermiling strategy is working! Thanks to Steven for the de-roof-racking and John McCain for the tire inflation reminder.
Day 2 preview: Tomorrow night will either go see TMLMTBGB or the Red Sox vs White Sox at Comiskey. Tickets for both still available…(!)
UPDATE: Other sources for CT ice cream…
The last two days have been extremely difficult. Professionally, I’m less than happy about the way a couple of my projects were left at DFCI (though rationally I know the fault for the most egregious of these lies external to myself). Emotionally, it’s been hard to be around my sisters and friends for the last time in … who knows how long. And at risk of sounding like a wimp or something but man, I own a lot of heavy junk. But however lousy the getting off part has been, I have to keep reminding myself that it’s all going to be worth it once I’m in San Francisco. A new job, a new city, a new coast, a new ethic, a chance at a new me. People have been reinventing themselves in California since when, the Gold Rush? Or, before – you just know the Aleutians had to be stoked when they finally made it down the coast from Siberia.
I’m not sure what kind of access I’ll have over the next few days but am hoping to post occasional interesting things as I’m able. Photos I’ll throw in this flickr set, and assuming I can find the itouch that has wandered off I’ll update facebook with obligatory unfunny statii. And, please, please please, come visit me (& VC) sometime soon.
Day 0: 0 miles
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