Best Roadtrip Ever

I still remember the time schedule, though it was nearly a year ago. Pick Matt up at the Salt Lake airport at 9:45 a.m. Arrive at storage unit in Stansbury Park and leave by 11 a.m. Arrive at the apartment in downtown Salt Lake by 11:45. Load the truck and be on the road, driving away in a moving truck with the Corrolla in tow and the SUV riding in front or behind by 2 p.m.

Duke, saying goodbye to Utah's powder outside Park City.
Monday's post about roadtripping to Tennessee got me thinking about the Best Roadtrip Ever. I could tell roadtripping stories all week, but we know how that kind of storytelling turns out.

What made it the Best Ever wasn't the planning, though the move was mentally rehearsed ad nauseum. TW was working her final day at The Apple while I loaded up the moving truck. She would fly to Minneapolis and spend the night with her mother at an airport hotel, then fly to Boston the next day. TW and TMIL would look for housing in Maine while I drove across the country with my lunkhead friends, Matt and Jimmy.

The route we took is 2,671 miles long. A lot can happen in 2,671 miles. To wit:

WYOMING
* Jim and Jim moon the moving truck.
* On an unrelated note, Matt almost hits a couple of deer.
* I work out on a treadmill at 5 a.m. and see a Fleet Farm commercial. This warms my heart.
* It's snowing in the high plains of Wyoming. But we outrun the storm, 'cuz we can.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Truckin'.
* Jimmy and Matt go visit a beer store in a firehouse in Rapid City while Jim and Duke proceed west in the plodding moving truck.
* Jimmy comments, "You know the amazing thing about all this ... nothing? It goes right down to the Gulf of Mexico! There's nothing between here and there." Jimmy has achieved Roadtrip Zen.
* Matt leaves the pack to go pick up beer at a friend's house in suburban Minneapolis/St. Paul.

And those are the relatively boring states. Jimmy and I made a run to where he held his first job in Wisconsin. He hadn't been there since 2003. I think he gave the place the finger at one point.

On a Sunday, we parked the moving truck and drove an hour south into Pittsburgh. Just to eat buffalo wings. And then we spent hours sitting in traffic. On a Sunday. In the middle of nowhere.

On our fifth day of driving, we crossed into Maine on Interstate 95. The antics more or less stopped before we even got out of the truck. It was all for a good cause, a better life in Maine. That trip was years in the planning and making. TW went to night school five nights a week to make that trip happen.

And now, even with gas at obscene prices it might never come down from, I find myself wanting to go on a roadtrip. Is anybody moving soon?

Comments

  1. SarahApril 25, 2011 at 8:01 PM

    I'm not moving, but I'm always up for a road trip. Does that count? Made perfect sense to me that you drove to TN to pick up a dog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JillApril 25, 2011 at 8:22 PM

    I could have used more detail after South Dakota. This blog had so much potential. But, I also like a good road trip. 33-5-3,

    ReplyDelete
  3. David CorriveauApril 26, 2011 at 6:48 AM

    If we hit MegaMillions tonight or Powerball tomorrow, I'd be tempted to make a roadtrip to Sundance. We stayed in a house with a great view of Timpanogos in May of 2008 and fell in love with the place. ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. IncarossApril 26, 2011 at 8:29 AM

    If you can figure out how to get a car through the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama I am in.

    ReplyDelete

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