America the Beautiful Pass purchased!

I've been pretty lazy about buying this, but it's done!  I have purchased the America the Beautiful National Parks Pass.  It's 80 bucks, but it allows you into all the National Parks for one year.

Not all parks charge an entry fee, but some do.  After calculating the prices for the parks we are intending to visit, I decided it was best to get the pass.  Now that we have it we can go to any National Park we want to whenever we want.  It's pretty sweet.

This will not only make our trip a little easier, but we now have the option of seeing more.  Since we have no real itinerary, we can basically do whatever we want and see whatever we want.  Having this pass will just open up the country a little bit more.

You can find info about the America the Beautiful Pass here.  I will review the pass once I have used it a couple times.

Getting ready for the summer trip

Traveling with someone requires a lot more planning and effort than traveling alone.  When I was single I'd usually make a plan, inform people who lived in or near my destination that I was coming so we could hang out, and then go.

Now, I have to make lists and have a more defined plan.  The wife doesn't really want to fly by the seat of our pants, and I guess that's cool.  It is nice having a list so that I don't forget stuff.  Once I almost flew back to the United States without my computer charger.  That would've been horrible.

Since the planning began we've researched possible destinations, sights and places to eat.  The wife has been pretty diligent in thinking about what we need to bring and other logistics.  I've basically been in charge of our "flight plan" so to speak.  I absolutely refuse to make reservations at hotels along the way as the time to get to a certain destination may not always be what we think it will be.  I have a lot of friends tell me stories how they made reservations for their long car trip only to get delayed and miss the reservation.  To make matters worse they often times would have paid the full amount prior to departure.  I don't want to spend money on something I may not be able to use.  I know I run the risk of not finding a hotel where I want to, but there are plenty of hotels along the way and I'm sure we'll find one.  Another reason I dislike hotel reservations is that you never know where you might need to stop.  Sure it's easy to look at a map and have a destination in mind, but you may get tired earlier or you may have more energy and decide to press on.  There are dozens of factors when it comes to car travel and I feel that they all dictate the necessity of having open ended plans.  I also really like just knowing the end date and figuring stuff out on the road.

The wife and I purchased some stuff for the trip such as some dehydrated camp meals.  We really want to save money and so we're going to eat in most of the time we're traveling.  We'll probably eat one meal out a day, but we'll see figure that out later.  I do, however, have a couple places that I absolutely want to eat at.  One of these places is the Big Texan in Amarillo, Texas.  I've seen it on TV and read about it online.  I have to try one of their steaks.  I'm not going to do the 72 oz challenge.  That's a young man's endeavor...

So far we've got our list of gear we need and an outline of places we want to go and by when we need to be there.  I think we're good for our trip.  Now to just wait out the next two weeks and pack and we'll be good to go.

Road Trip to Ohio and Back

The Road Trip is an integral part of American society. Since the advent of the car, Americans have been roaming the highways and byways of our vast and diverse country. It's part of us, part of our mindset. When people in most other countries think of a car trip, they think of a couple hours in a car and that's it. In Europe, people drive two or three hours and they are in another country. We drive a couple hours and we're lucky to leave our own state. America is one of the few truly sprawling countries (others being Canada, Russia and Australia to name a few). Being raised in the States has imbued me with the love of travel especially car travel.

Another American tradition my family subscribes to is that of being spread out. I have family in about seven states. My brother lives in a small city in North-Western Ohio called Norwalk. Our father lives in an even smaller town about four miles away called Milan (Milan is where Thomas Edison was born). I live in Memphis, Tennessee. It's roughly 12 hours from where I live to where my brother lives by car.

I've done long car trips before. I've driven to Florida and back several times and more than once did I do that trip alone. I've driven to Texas and back and to other states in my region. This was the first time for me to be driving North in the winter. I had made the trip three previous times and once alone, but that was in the summer. I worried about getting stuck in the snow and ice. I was also a bit nervous because my car is new and I'm still paying the loan off. I did not want to wreck due to inclimate weather. I packed some emergency supplies and some food for the trip. I left pretty early, about 5:30 am.

The trip through Tennessee went very smoothly. I went through Nashville with no problems and began the long trip North. Kentucky was nice. It looks a lot like Tennessee, but with one difference: it was snowy. It wasn't too bad. Just a nice white layer to the scenery. I actually started to lose interest in it. That is until I crossed over into Cincinnati and Ohio.

When you're driving North into Ohio from Kentucky on I-71 you have to cross a river into Cincinnati. It's a bit of a tricky maneuver. You have to get immediately over to the right once you cross the bridge in order to make it onto the off ramp to Cleveland. Cars often zip and shoot through this area. More than once I came close to getting clipped on previous trips. This time, however, I had no problems. Only one car was getting onto the interstate where I needed to get over to make my turn.

I made it through the dreaded area and headed North-East towards Cleveland. I had a pretty smooth trip up. I caught some traffic outside of Cleveland, but other than that I was okay.

Once at my brother's house I started pounding back Cranberry and Vodkas like nothing else. I got drunk and went to bed. I would've stayed up longer, but I had yet another trip to take the next morning.

My brother is an avid outdoorsman. He loves anything to with the outdoors; camping, boating, fishing, hunting, snow mobiling, etc. To help facilitate his passion he bought a large trailer in order to haul his vehicles and gear. It was located about 4 hours North in Midland, Michigan. We left early in the morning and headed up. It was pretty mild. Once we got up to Michigan the scenery steadily got whiter and whiter. We got the trailer and headed back home.

On the way we grabbed a bite to eat at "Big John's" sandwich shop. It was pretty decent. I've had better sandwiches, but I can't complain too much about it. Our next stop was at Cabela's.

For those of you who don't know, Cabela's is a huge huge outdoors store. I was absolutely surprised and delighted by this place. It truly is a one stop outdoors shop. You can get anything from hunting to camping to boating. The prices are nice too. On top of their normal good prices they have a bargain cave where returned items await repurchase. Usually it's a case of not liking the item and then returning it. None of the items I saw had visible damage.

The rest of my visit was pretty low key.

The ride home was much nicer than the way up. For my return to Tennessee I purchased a couple audio books. I got World War Z and Shit My Dad Says. Having those on board made my trip go by in no time at all. It kept my mind busy and was constantly changing. A problem I had on the way to Ohio was having to listen to the same music over and over again. If you're traveling long distance in a car (especially alone), I highly recommend audio books.