Road Trip Days 5-6: St. Louis to Tulsa to Amarillo

The Route 66 portion of my road trip got off to a soggy start. It rained for much of my way through Missouri, and finally let up shortly before I entered Kansas.

Perhaps it was the weather, but the portions of Route 66 through Missouri were not all that exciting. It was an interesting learning process to try to figure out how to actually find the road. It also became clear very quickly that my guide book makes a lot of things sound more interesting than they actually are in person.

As opposed to Missouri, the short 13-mile stretch of Route 66 through the corner of Kansas was extremely well marked, although it was over before I knew it.

Oklahoma was when things really started to get interesting. Oklahoma has some very drivable stretches of Route 66, and for the most part they are fairly well marked. Before reaching Tulsa, where I stopped for the night, I got my first true Route 66 roadside attraction - the Blue Whale in Catoosa, Oklahoma.

Tulsa was an odd city. I wandered around in the evening through the area where all of the recommended restaurants were. One restaurant had a 25+ minute wait, but every other restaurant had at most 2 customers in it. On principle I refuse to wait 25 minutes to eat Mexican food in Tulsa and I didn't feel like an awkward solo dining experience, so I headed back to the hotel restaurant and then called it a night.

The next morning I got an early start and was treated to a great roadside gas station and store called Pop's, which specializes in crazy sodas from all over the country. They came in every flavor imaginable, most of which you probably would never want to try. I bought a six pack of samples anyway just for the fun of it, although I'm sure they will mostly be terrible. Given that the root beer that I actually intended to enjoy was not very good, I have low expectations.

Next I headed to Oklahoma City to visit the National Memorial dedicated to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. It was incredibly moving and well done. It might be the nicest memorial I've ever seen.

After leaving Oklahoma City, I meandered my way through the rest of Oklahoma into Texas, alternately driving the old Route 66 for stretches and bypassing less accessible or interesting stretches on the Interstate. The ghost town of Texola, just on the Oklahoma side of the Oklahoma/Texas border was particularly interesting.

There were also several scenic stops on the Texas side before I reached Amarillo.

My destination for the night was the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo. It was gloriously touristy. The food was delicious, although my "sampler" was so huge I still have half of it in the cooler in my trunk. The Big Texan is known for its 72 oz. steak challenge - you get a 72 oz. steak for free if you can finish it (plus multiple sides) in an hour. Two brave souls tried while I was there, but neither succeeded.

As it turns out, full days of driving are exhausting. And now I'm off to bed.

Road Trip Days 2-4: Nashville and St. Louis

After switching out the cursed car, my road trip was back on track. My friends and I had a great time exploring the honky tonks of downtown Nashville.

We got to try some delicious famous Nashville hot chicken at Hattie B's, one of the most famous hot chicken joints in town (conveniently right near our hotel).

We also attended a beautiful wedding of a friend of ours, which was the impetus of this entire trip and what made me get the idea to do the road trip in the first place.

After I left Nashville, I headed to St. Louis to visit a friend from college. When I saw the Arch as I approached the city, it truly dawned on me for the first time that I was really doing this road trip and seeing all new parts of America. The drive into St. Louis got me really excited. My friend kindly obliged my desire to be a tourist and visit the Arch. It's an amazing structure up close, and the ride to the top in the tiny elevator pods was a completely unique experience.

From the top of the Arch it seems like America stretches on forever in each direction. I got a good view looking west, where I'll be headed in the days to come.

Road Trip Day One: Virginia to Lexington, Kentucky. And I'm possibly cursed.

Well, my road trip is not off to the smoothest start. It's day two, and I'm already onto my second rental car. But more on that in a bit. First, the good stuff.

For this first leg of the trip, I had a traveling companion to help ease my way in. We headed out from my parents' house outside Washington, D.C. toward Lexington, Kentucky.

Our first stop, apropos of Halloween, was Lake Shawnee abandoned amusement park near Princeton, West Virginia. The park was built in 1926 on land that was the site of a Native American burial ground and multiple child murders. After the park opened, strange events started occurring, resulting in several mysterious deaths of children until the park eventually closed. Today it remains as a tourist attraction, and the friendly owners were kind enough to let us in even though we were there outside of typical business hours. Whether or not the place is actually haunted is open to debate, although after the rest of our day, I might be more open to arguments on the subject now.

After leaving Lake Shawnee, we continued on our route, stopping at another Halloween attraction in West Virginia, a house with 3,000 carved jack o' lanterns.

Having gotten our fill of Halloween goodness, we continued on toward our final destination of Lexington. It was largely uneventful until we were about 15 miles outside the city, when the sunroof in our car spontaneously exploded and shards of glass rained down on our heads. After recovering from the initial shock and terror, I found my way to a gas station to investigate the damage. There was glass everywhere in car, but no sign of anything that caused the explosion. Having no other choice, I continued on to our hotel - in the rain, of course - while my friend called the rental car company to figure out how to go about getting a new car. We also did some Googling, and apparently exploding sunroofs are a thing that actually happens. I still think it might have had something to do with driving on the Native American burial ground. I grew up watching Poltergeist, I know how it works.

Long story short, we eventually got a new car in Lexington this morning (where there were snow flurries!), after much confusion and my having to  explain why I was "returning" my car without a full tank of gas, which naturally was the rental car agent's greatest concern.

Here's hoping that this was the one and only truly crazy moment of my trip and it's all uphill from here.

Autumn in New York

Like most people who live in New York City, I love the City. Like most people who love the City, I love getting out of the City when those six perfect-weather weekends of the year grace us with their presence.

In the weeks leading up the the Great American Road Trip, I've taken full advantage of New York's greatest season and have headed North on multiple weekends to soak in the fresh air and sunshine. As much as I love the City, I love this State. I was born here, and have spent 27 of my we're-not-going-to-say-how-many years here. I can't wait to get back to where it all began at the tail end of my road trip. In the meantime, back to the Hudson Valley.

Weekend number one out of the city involved a jaunt up to Peekskill on the Metro North. Judging by how packed the train was, it seemed that everyone had the same idea we had. Regardless, the weather couldn't have been more beautiful, and Peekskill is the perfect quaint town that any big city dweller obsesses over upon visiting. From whimsical signage at the train station to an old time theater, it has all the makings of the perfect day trip. I've also oddly been a sucker for fake postcards of places painted on walls.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Even better, I had a chance to visit not only a great independent used record and book store (part of my ongoing tour of vinyl), but also a local brewery. As expected, the brewery had great local beers to try. What I did not expect was the amazing Bloody Mary made with bacon flavored vodka, topped with a slice of bacon. Bacon heaven.

 

We were even treated to the perfect sunset over the Hudson River to cap off the day.

Having enjoyed the Peekskill adventure so much, I decided to take weekend number two to practice driving in advance of the road trip and head even further up the Hudson River to the Walkway Over the Hudson, an old railroad bridge spanning the Hudson River between the towns of Poughkeepsie and Highland, New York, which has been turned into a pedestrian walkway and state park.

Having a car and being in the country, we couldn't resist stopping by one of the many farms in the area that come alive during the Fall season, offering up pumpkin picking and corn mazes, and selling the greatest treat of Autumn, the apple cider doughnut. If you've never tried a cider doughnut, I highly recommend it. There's really nothing like a fresh one on a crisp Autumn day. And once again, we were of course blessed with a beautiful sunset as we wound our way out of the corn maze and headed home.

And now I'm full of enough love for New York to leave it for a month. I'll be reporting to you from the road as I enjoy my one month in America.

Back Up And Running

It's nearly impossible to believe that it's been almost two and a half years since my last blog entry. After a great run of traveling and dabbling in various freelance endeavors, I slowly found myself being pulled back into my old life. While I never fully resumed my former biglaw lifestyle, I misguidedly found myself roaming the halls of a law firm once again for far too long, as a temporary 4-week contract gig spiraled into a permanent job that lasted nearly two years. While I understand that normally that would be considered a good thing and what most people would want, this blog is a testament to the fact that I've never been good at wanting what most people want.

So, after rereading some of my older blog entries and feeling the wanderlust kick in with a vengeance, I've decided to fire it up again. The last six months have seen my life turned inside out, ultimately all for the better. After a crazy and stressful spring and summer of life changes, being forced to move and deciding to quit my job, I've settled into an exciting and happy fall (the best season of the year). I'm back to the freelance life, doing research and investigations, making my own schedule and working from coffee shops or my fabulous new yard in Harlem.

In my spare time I'm also going to start volunteering as a photographer for the High Line, one of my favorite places in the City.

Perhaps most importantly, I've restarted my health kick and have gotten back into kickboxing. I didn't realize just how much I missed it until I got back in the gym and starting hitting the bags again. I even did a mud run obstacle course with a friend last weekend, and while I still completely despise running, it was a total blast.

And now it's time to get back to the traveling. The last couple of years have involved a lot less traveling than I'd gotten used to doing (life has a way of getting in the way), but I did manage to squeeze in some amazing trips, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

Before I dust off the passport again, I'll be taking a one month road trip around the United States during the month of November. I've been fully entrenched in plotting my adventure, and I can't remember the last time I was this excited. I leave New York in 16 days, and there's a lot to do before then. There will be much more to come on that trip in future entries. For now I'll be staying local and enjoying a carefree autumn in New York.

Viva España

Last month, driven to restlessness and boredom by an unexpected dry spell at work, I decided it was time to take care of this 2012's installment of my goal to visit one new country every year.  I sat down at my computer, fired up Orbitz, and just started searching flights from New York to various random European cities for the following weekend.  The clear winner, by hundreds of dollars, turned out to be Madrid.

A week later, with borrowed guidebooks in my carry-on and far lighter luggage than I'm used to schlepping, I was on a flight.  After a year of trips that lasted anywhere from three weeks to two months, packing for a 4-day trip to one city was absurdly easy.  Also, since my goal for the trip included little beyond wandering in the sun and stopping to enjoy some sangria and tapas, a hotel reservation and a basic list of major sites prepared at the airport bar seemed like more than sufficient planning.

Madrid was every bit as laid back as I hoped it would be.  Although the forecast called for rain for half my trip, I lucked out and only had a passing shower here and there my first two days.  And while I saw everything on my list, I didn't manage to do a single thing according to the rough itinerary I had sketched out for myself.  It was all so delightfully spontaneous and relaxed.

The heart of the city (at least for tourists) is Plaza Mayor, a large pedestrian square surrounded by old buildings and arcaded shops.

In the warm weather, the restaurants on all sides of the square spill out onto the cobblestones and set up tables where people can sit for hours on end, just eating and drinking and watching the world go by.  I spent many an hour at the various places, enjoying some sangria and soaking up both the sun and the local flavor.

The rest of my days were filled with parks, Spanish opera, flamenco shows and the requisite visit to the Prado to see Goya's "Black Paintings."  The other big highlight of Madrid, in my opinion, was the Palacio Real, the stunning royal palace (where indoor photography was, unfortunately, forbidden).

As lovely as all of the sites were, the real attraction of Madrid is simply walking around.  The city is compact enough that almost everything can be reached on foot, and everywhere you go, no matter what time of day or night it is, the streets are full of people strolling aimlessly.  Without any real fear of getting lost or ending up in a bad area, it was easy to spend hours turning down random side streets and popping into little shops along the way.  The slow pace of life was a welcome change from New York, although I did have several moments when I wondered how anyone ever actually got anywhere by walking that slowly.

And we must not forget the tapas.  There are so many delicious food options everywhere you turn that it would be impossible to come close to trying them all during your stay.

The seafood was amazing, as were each of the 100 different ways that they have come up with to prepare ham.  And I didn't even mind the olives, which is saying a lot.  Thankfully all of the food was offset by all of the walking....

And on that note, I need to find myself some lunch.