DocAnd Grace On The Road: Home at Last

Got home last night (Friday) about 9:30, roughly a day ahead of schedule. Good to be back. Roscoe was glad to see us. Lots of unpacking to do soon.

Had a very fun trip home on Route 66, but Grace and I agree that we will take no more long driving trips (long being more than 5 days round trip) for a few years. We have seen more than enough of the midwest for awhile, tho we might take the train to Origins in a couple of years.

Will write the Big Trip Summary later. Now it is time to start the unpacking.

 

NOTES FROM THE FUTURE: Let’s review, shall we? Trip TO con? Sucked ass. Con itself? Missed most of it due to leg infection. Trip home? Pretty nice, actually. So, in summation, it was a pretty sucky and money wasting trip.

And I miss Roscoe.

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Doc and Grace On The Road: Update

Quick update before I collapse into bed.

1: The trip TO GenCon had about a 85% suck rate

2: GenCon itself, all 7 hours total I got to spend at it, was ok. Still, my boredom with things gaming has infected GenCon and I have decided not to return for at least 3 years. Next year, I’ll give Origins a try.

3: I was utterly unimpressed with Indianapolis. Also, both the water and much of the air stank.

4: The trip home on Route 66 (or the spiritual replacements thereof) has so far been tons of fun. The driving can get tiring, but the stops along the way make up for it.

5: I’m posting this from Gallup, New Mexico.

6: We will, barring a return of our bad luck, be home by Sunday evening.

7: Tomorrow, we are off across Arizona with a stop planned for Meteor Crater.

 

NOTES FROM THE FUTURE:You will note that days worth of blogging do not appear here. Blame that 85% suck rate, an infected leg and my rapidly decreasing interest in GenCon and many other aspects of gaming at that time. On the other hand, Meteor Crater is hella cool and you should all travel Route 66 at least once.

Doc and Grace On The Road: Part Four (Saturday, August 14th)

In which Your Humble Narrator posts a brief note about the NEXT posting.

Well, my friends, today started out well…but then the Gods of Vacation decided to piss merrily upon us. Not like they did on John Kovalic on his recent Air Canada Fun Day, but a healthy whiz nonetheless.

I’ll post the whole sad story on Sunday night. For now, I’m off to bed.

Fun Trip Fact: Well, we ain’t dead!

 

NOTES FROM THE FUTURE: Actually, the Vacation Gods only pissed on us to get us ready for the 6 day shit they were about to drop on us. Second Worst Vacation Ever. Have only been back to GenCon once since then (2007) and have not done a long driving trip since then.

Doc and Grace On The Road: Part Three (Yes, Still Friday, August 13th)

In which we arrive at days end tired, hungry and NOT camping

I’m writing this from a motel in Provo, Utah. Grace and I decided that getting up way early and then driving all day thru the desert was not conducive to setting up a camp for the night. So just call us lazy old middle aged farts

Tomorrow’s adventure will see us on the road to Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park, so check in on Part Four.

 

NOTES FROM THE FUTURE: The only good thing I can say about that fucking motel is that the constant arrival of cops and ambulances kept the lowlifes from fucking with our car.

Doc and Grace On The Road: Part Two (Still Friday, August 13th)

In which we finally practice our videography, deal with the heat of the desert, see wildlife and enter Utah.

We have finally gotten some video footage under our belts and when the eventual 2004 Road Trip DVD appears, some of you may get to see our handiwork. Actually, a few of you may get to see the raw footage at GenCon

Being as how this is desert we’re driving through, it’s pretty damned hot outside. This means driving with the AC on and drinking lots of cold drinks. The cold drinks are fine, but the AC is really doing a number on our gas mileage, especially when you factor in our new cartop luggage carrier. We tried driving with no AC and the windows open, but after the little red “FULLY COOKED” indicators popped out of our breasts, we turned the AC back on.

Anyone who read the 2002 Trip Report on my website knows that we saw almost no wildlife on that trip. Well, we’re having much better luck this time. We’ve seen hawks, ravens, deer, jackrabbits, a ground squirrel and TWO golden eagles. And we aren’t even trough Utah yet.

Speaking of Utah, we entered it about an hour ago. If you like rocks and scrub, western Utah is the place for you.

Fun Trip Fact: It appears that if you are looking to buy cheap souvenirs for your friends, you need to be traveling on an interstate freeway, since the stores along interstate highways don’t stock them.

Fun Trip Fact: No matter what state or country you come from, the drivers in other states/countries are always worse.

 

NOTES FROM THE FUTURE: At this point in the journey, we are living in a Fool’s Paradise, since a night in a shithole motel in Mormon Central is only hours away.

Doc and Grace On The Road: Part One (Friday, August 13th)

In which we leave late, find our video attempts confounded and cruise across America’s loneliest road.

Well, friends & neighbors, despite my getting out of bed at 1:30 this morning (and Grace arising a half hour later), we still managed to hit the road 45 minutes late. Which isn’t bad for us, I might add. Roscoe was not pleased to see us go, but he’ll be having fun and getting spoiled by our housesitter, so he won’t waste away pining for us.

The drive over the Sierras was, well, DARK. Can’t do a whole hell of a lot of sightseeing at 4:00 in the morning. We reached Reno just ahead of sun up and gassed up in Fallon shortly after sunrise. Right now, we’re just barely into highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America. We like driving this route across Nevada because (A) It’s not your big typical interstate like I-80 is (B) no cops (C) no traffic and (D) because of B & C you can safely drive like you’re being chased by the hounds of Hell.

Our attempts to video our trip so far have been thwarted by both early morning non-wakefullness and intermittent rains here in the Silver State. We’ll be trying again in an hour or so.

Fun Trip Fact: To wake up this morning, Doc brewed a mug of tea that was so strong it had to be beaten into submission before he could drink it.

Fun Trip Fact: As I type this, we are listening to Disc 6 of the ten disc set titled “Speeding Ticket Music” that Doc mixed for this trip. Disc 6 is subtitled “Songs For Young Gamers In Love”

NOTES FROM THE FUTURE: Sweet Jesus on a mint creme Oreo, do I ever wish I could go back and tell the 2004 Grace and Doc to first go get me an antibiotic shot, because a leg infection was about 48 hours away. I’d also tell them to take Interstate 80, not 50. Oh well.

You Can’t Escape From The Spy Dogs

Busy busy busybusybusy weekend. Grace and I both had many errands to run and things to take care of here at home in preparation for the Big Trip. We worked our asses off on Saturday, then did more stuff (including packing up enough supplies to outfit a journey up the Nile) until we fell into bed at 10 PM…only to get up at 4 fuckin’ AM this morning. Gadzooks, this getting up early blows! Yeah, 2 AM on Friday morning is NOT going to be Happy Smiles Time at the Cross hacienda.

Tonight and tomorrow I’m cooking food to freeze and then eat on the trip to Indy. We’ll have curry, spaghetti with red sauce, spaghetti with pesto and italian sausage, hot dogs & beans and PB&J sandwiches.

More bloggage later.