all posts relevant to ‘travel’

not as much driving today. we were in nashville most of the day, waiting for my car to get done. thankfully, the hotel i randomly chose in the West End was half a mile from Centennial Park, and across the street from Blackstone Restaurant & Brewery.

after getting a ride back from the Ford dealer to the hotel, carrie and i walked down to Centennial Park and saw the Parthenon. it’s the only full-scale replica of the Parthenon in the world. there was a lot of other interesting stuff in that park, including a 4-8-4 steam locomotive.

after the park, we walked back down West End, stopped briefly at a Fedex Kinkos to print out our closing documents. while in Kinkos, the skies opened up. it was most fortunate timing.

after the rain let up, we walked down to Blackstone for lunch. good food, good beer. some GABF winners in their lineup.

we utilized public transportation to get back to the Ford dealer, after much grousing on the phone about how many ways their shuttle is. the cost for 2 new tires, rotate and balance was pretty reasonable. the vibration is better; i still think i have a wheel bearing heading south. it should make it to NH fine though.

we drove from Nashville TN to Lexington KY to meet up for dinner with some of carrie’s friends. after that, we hit the road for a bit longer and decided to call it a night just north of Lexington.

and that’s it. today should be Buffalo NY by sundown.

today we drove from the westernmost edge of Arkansas, to the middle of Tennessee. we stopped in Nashville to have dinner at the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium and we decided to stay in town tonight. i’ve got a vibration from my passenger side front wheel that isn’t making me feel special. so we’ll find a dealer tomorrow to check it out before we leave town.

Arkansas and what we’ve seen of Tennessee already was nice. lush, rolling green hills. Nashville seems like a neat town, but i haven’t seen too much of it. i hope to see the Parthenon replica before we jet out tomorrow; it depends how much time the tire thing will eat up.

tomorrow we head northeast, through Kentucky and winding up somewhere probably in Ohio. within a day’s striking distance of Buffalo, is the goal.

well, we’re here. in Fort Smith, Arkansas. we didn’t get to leave Hutchinson/McPherson until about 3 in the afternoon, so we didn’t make Memphis today.

i have now driven in Oklahoma (down from Wichita KS through Tulsa to Fort Smith) and i have to say: your roads suck. SUCK. Oklahoma, you’re NOT OK. i just paid 8 different tolls to drive down a couple hundred miles of what you call a freeway, and i think my kidneys are bruised.

i’m exhausted at about 12:30am and that’s good; we’ve been stuck on Pacific Time. i think we’re finally hitting MDT at least, if not CDT.

tomorrow – through Little Rock to Memphis and Nashville. yee-haw! pray for not so much rain. they’ve been getting a lot. i don’t want to drive in it.

Day 5 was pretty laid back. we stayed in McPherson another night, and visited some friends in Hutchinson Kansas. hung out at their house most of the day, and then went to the Kansas State Fair for a few hours.

wow, day 4′s driving is really… unspectacular.

one thing that really struck me about denver was how flat it was. once you get over the mountains the city itself is really not hilly. i’d say Seattle is more vertically interesting. And eastern Colorado (pictured) is … boring. we were told it would be exciting compared to kansas, but i found them both to be equally bland.

what? no pictures of western Kansas? well, let’s do this. imagine you’re driving down a straight road. on the left side of you is corn. on the right side of you is corn. you’re driving very fast, and there is corn on both sides of the road.

are you picturing this in your mind? good. now keep thinking about that for the next 6 hours.