By: Ethan Levine
7/23/03 – 7/27/03
We drove into St. Louis with no real problems and arrived at my friend Alyssa’s apartment. We quickly settled in and headed out to dinner after our long day of driving. There’s a section of St. Louis, called ‘The Hill’ where there’s a ton of Italian  restaurants, so we decided to splurge that night and eat out at an Italian restaurant.  The food was good and the meal was extremely filling. Afterwards, we went back to Alyssa’s to hang out (see Picture #1) and passed out pretty quickly. Our days are so long, we have little energy to stay up past midnight.
The following morning we headed into St. Louis to do a bit of site-seeing. We first went to a popular park called Forest Park (see Picture #2). We walked around the park for a bit and headed into downtown to see the Gateway Arch. The Gateway Arch is a pretty tremendous monument; actually, it’s the biggest in the United States. For those of you that don’t know its significance, it’s supposed to be the gateway to the West as Lewis and Clark began their expedition from St. Louis. Interestingly enough, for us, it was the gateway back East (see Picture #3). They had a pretty impressive museum that gave a detailed description of Lewis and Clark’s expedition and American expansion into the west and the consequences felt by the American Indians. We opted against waiting an hour and a half and paying to travel up to the top of the arch. We walked around Lacleade Landing, a riverside area with a bunch of restaurants. Marc stopped for chocolate milk and complained to get our parking slip validated to give us a discount on parking even though he hadn’t actually eaten a meal. Let’s just say we only had to pay $1 for parking for 2 hours, not bad. And we headed over the Mississippi into Illinois.
On the way to Illinois, we stopped for lunch right near a cornfield and although it wasn’t Iowa, I decided to experiment (see Picture #4). Somehow, I didn’t disappear. Oh well, only in Iowa I guess. On the way to Chicago, we stopped off in sketchy Springfield to check out Lincoln’s tomb. Megan has a certain fascination with dead people, so she wanted to stop. I’m not a big fan of tombs, so I merely sat outside enjoying the scenic cemetery.
Eventually, we pulled into Hinsdale, a suburb outside of Chicago. We were staying with Caroline, one of Megan’s good friends from Dartmouth. She and her parents were so sweet. They took us out to dinner into another suburb of Chicago, Lagrange for a relaxing dinner. Afterwards, we stopped by Blockbuster to rent a video. Under Megan’s authority, we rented “Igby Goes Down.” Wow, that was probably one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Caroline fell asleep halfway through it. I surprisingly was able to stay up through it, dunno how though, I felt dumber for watching it.
The following morning, we took it pretty slow and went into Chicago around 1. Unfortunately, Marc wasn’t feeling well, so he stayed behind to sleep and rest. So, Caroline took Megan and I on a long walking tour of the downtown area of the city (see Picture #5) for about 5 miles; my legs were definitely tiring. We went to go see Buckingham Fountain (see Picture #6) which was pretty. Some dude tried to sell me a postcard for $3 to “raise money.” I told him I didn’t have any cash on me, which I didn’t. Nonetheless, it seems pretty ineffective to sell postcards for $3, but I guess when the guy imposes on you like he did to me, he gets a bunch of people to feel sorry and pay up. I might’ve considered it, if it were $1, that seems a bit more reasonable. Anyways, we walked over to Navy Pier after that and walked along it, looking at the Tiffany Stained Glass Gallery and other cool stuff. This sign (see Picture #7) made me realize that we could’ve driven to Paris and back (well, except for the whole Ocean being in the way) with the amount of mileage we had already accumulated. Thereafter, we walked up to Michigan Avenue, which is kinda the equivalence of 5th Avenue in New York City. There, we stopped at the Tribune Tower,  which is an awesome building. Before building it, they had people go around the world to take pieces of other famous building so they could incorporate it into the Tower. They took pieces from places like Notre Dame in Paris, Parliament in London and the Great Wall of China. Very cool.
Getting hungry, we walked over to the original Pizzeria Uno for dinner (see Picture #8). Chicago’s the birthplace of the deep dish pizza. It’s totally different from pizza done on the East Coast. It was really good, definitely glad we stopped. Then we took the “EL,” or Subway to Wrigley Field. Being the baseball fanatic that I am, it was neat to be at the oldest stadium (see Picture #9). Also, it appears as if Cubs fans support of Sammy Sosa has not diminished despite his illegal use of a corked bat (see Picture #10). Marc was feeling better for a bit and met up with us for a drink at one of the local pubs. Unfortunately, he started feeling sick again and went home before we headed out to the bar scene afterwards.
We ended up going to a place called Mother’s. It’s kinda funny when you think about. Let’s say you got a little drunk at this place and you were telling a friend the following day about your previous night; you could say, “Yea, I got a little drunk at Mother’s.” Ok, maybe I just find it humorous. It was a pretty cool place that had a bar, karaoke and a night club. The clientele was a bit older than the three of us, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time (see Picture #11). We hung out for a bit until the karaoke started up. Of course, being the karaoke master (alright, I’m far from it, but at least I try), I joined Megan and Caroline for an ‘interesting’ rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. I’ll give myself the credit for being the first guy to go up there and do it. Afterwards, others followed. Fortunately. Megan and Caroline went up for another song while I took pictures (see Picture #12). It was a good time. By the end of the night, I had also accumulated a free t-shirt and a blinking light bouncing ball. After taking the train back, I passed out fairly quickly.
The following morning, we slept a bit later than anticipated, but got out fairly quickly after Caroline’s mother had made omelettes for us for breakfast and packed lunches for us. I’m telling you, the hospitality at the various homes we’ve stayed at has been beyond my expectations. People are just so nice. I love people. Anyways, we headed out on the road, driving through Indiana and into Ohio. Well, we were welcomed back into the Eastern Time Zone by being forced to pay tolls in Indiana and Ohio. We also saw East coast staples like Sunoco gas. Ah, it was good to be approaching home. Did you know it costs $9 to travel across Ohio on Route 80? What’s up with that? I’ve never heard of such a ridiculous a cost for a highway. The road wasn’t even very nice.
Eventually, we made it to Cleveland. Marc and I really had little desire to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (see Picture #13); maybe, I’d go when I wasn’t on such a budget trip, gotta pick and choose, so we dropped Megan off and tried to find out how to obtain tickets for the evening’s baseball game. Yea, we kinda got lost driving through Cleveland, somehow ended up in the projects or something. Eventually, we called to find out that there were still 20,000 seats available for the game still and figured we’d just go over there after picking Megan up and grabbing a bite to eat. We did just that, stopping at a nearby Subway. It was a bit weird there – the guys in front of us sang to the servers behind the counter and some homeless guy was accosting the lady for a free cup of soda. We ate our food quickly and headed to the game.
Apparently the game had started at 7 and not 8 as posted on the internet because as we were approaching the stadium, fireworks shot off indicating a homerun had been hit by the Indians. When we got there, the score was already 8-2 in the second inning. Oh well, missed a few runs scored. We got the  $5 seats and just grabbed some random ones there as there were quite a number of empty seats. The tribe shouldn’t have let Thome go. Jacobs Field is absolutely beautiful; it was another new stadium just recently built (see Picture #14, see Picture #15). The game was probably the fastest game I had ever been to. Besides the fact that we got there a couple of innings late, the length of the game was only two and a half hours. The Twins didn’t do much to come back as the Indians ended up winning 9-2. On the way back to the car, Marc and Megan wanted me to take some weird pictures of them jumping up and down (see Picture #16). We got to the car and drove to the motel we’d booked the night before in Newton Falls, Ohio. The motel was fine minus the lady in the adjacent room banging on the wall when we had the TV on. The final evening on the trip was pretty uneventful. Marc and I tried to play a prank on Megan, but we really messed it up. It had something to do with me not being able to keep a straight face. Big surprise.
The following morning, we packed the car for the very last time and headed out across Pennsylvania. I’d tell you about all the cool things that happened along the drive home, but I’ll be honest, the most exciting thing was seeing all of the Pennsylvania cops pulling over lots of drivers. It’s a pretty uneventful state. Kind of a downer for the last drive of the trip, but that’s not  what I should be remembering anyways.
I’m sitting in the car now approaching my house and writing this final update. I hope you enjoyed all of my updates. I can get a little too detailed at times about my adventures and for those of you that read through them, thank you. For those of you that didn’t, well, I appreciate you not e-mailing me back that you weren’t interesting in receiving the e-mails and just let them clog your inbox's. It’s been an awesome adventure where I’ve seen so many different things that I had never see before. I also saw way too many cheap motels and gas station  pumps, which is never all that fun unless you got Marc to keep things interesting by getting in fights with motel staff. I also got to experience the wonderful hospitality of friends and their respective families along the way. Plus, I got to share it all with a couple of great friends who I thank dearly for putting up with me and a lot of my crap throughout the trip (oddly enough, I didn’t really include that in the updates making myself look an angel ;) ). It really has been an amazing four weeks and an exciting 9500 miles (yea, we didn’t do the direct route), and would do it again in a heartbeat (ok, maybe not a heartbeat, maybe a few years, I gotta take a break from roadtripping, but you get the point).
I figured in order to sum up certain points of my trip, I’d cite several of my superlatives.
State I Would Want to Return to the Most:
California
Best Vacation Spot:
Santa Barbara, CA
Best Party City:
New Orleans, LA
Most Underrated State:
South Dakota
Worst State:
Nevada
Best Fast-food Place:
Quizno’s (they opened one in East Hanover!)
Best Restaurant:
LuLu’s in San Francisco
Worst Driver:
Megan and Marc (tied)
Best Driver:
Ethan (ok, they weren’t that bad, maybe I’m just a bit biased and oddly enough I was the only one to receive a ticket)
Most Frequently Played Songs in the Car:
Do What the Good Book Tells You To – The Folksmen (A Mighty Wind)
The General – Dispatch
All-Star – Smash Mouth
Most Regrettable Moment:
Getting a ticket in Nocona, Texas
Event I Would Want to Return to the Most and Do Differently:
Receiving the ticket from C. Cox and kicking him where it hurts
Worst Drive:
Sioux Falls, SD to Saint Louis, MS via Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas
Indiana to New Jersey via Ohio and Pennsylvania
Best Drive:
The Pacific Coast Highway in California
Most Annoying Part of Trip:
Packing the Car EVERY morning
Scariest Moments:
Watching a bar fight up close
Sitting in the back while Megan drove along the Pacific Coast Highway
Coming face to face with Uranium Ore
Worst Motel:
Value Lodge – Grand Junction: Grand Junction, CO
Sketchiest Motel:
Motel 6 in Austin, TX
Best Motel:
Holiday Inn Express in Greeley, CO for $40 (Thanks Marc)
Coolest Coincidence:
Going through Cheyenne, WY during Frontier Days and watching a rodeo
Biggest Monument:
Gateway Arch (well, it actually is)
Prettiest Natural Land:
Black Hills, SD
Best Sidekicks:
Marc and Megan :)
I hope everyone else is having a wonderful summer, please e-mail me letting me know what you’re up to if you haven't yet. I’m not a self-centered person that just expects people to read my updates and have no desire to hear what others are doing :). Hope all is well with everyone.
Thanks again,
Ethan
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