So I originally said that I would to a wrap-up post the week after I got back. Well here it is, only about five weeks late. Work got busy, and then my computer decided not to save a spreadsheet that I was putting together that summarized what I did each day and a rough estimate what I spent each day, it it took a while to re-compile that.
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So first up is a summary of my last day on the road. I made my way about an hour south of Roanoke to the Martinsville Speedway for the NASCAR race. I got there around 8:30, which turned out to be way too early since I wasn't tailgating and the race didn't start until 2:30. I walked around for about about two hours, getting one of Martinsville Famous Red Hot Dogs along the way. The hot dog was way overrated, lacking any flavor for something that is named Red Hot.
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| This is the Natchez Trace Parkway of food: bland and very overrated |
An Esskay dog would have been better. I made my way back to the car and tried to nap since I only got about 6 hours of sleep the night before, but didn't have any success doing that.
Around 12:30 I made my way over to my seat. I contrast to Talladega, which the is the largest track in NASCAR at 2.66 miles long, Martinsville is absolutely minuscule at only a half mile long. From my seats, I could clearly the entire track closely, only a few pit stall in turn three were obstructed.
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| This is best view I've had at a race track |
The race turned out to be one of the best races I've been to, being very competitive with many passes for the lead. No one drive was able to dominate the race. The race finished with Joey Logano moving Martin Truex Jr out of the way on the final turn to take the win (see video below). The win put Joey in the championship race, which he would go on to win a few week later.
Leaving the track was a pain since waited about an hour to open the gates out of the parking lot so the all the VIPs could leave first. Once I got out on the road I had to decide if I wanted to drive all the way home or get another hotel for the night. I decide to see what time I'd get to the northern part of Virginia stop for a late dinner at Denny's, and if it looked like I'd get home after 2AM, I'd find a hotel around there for the night. After finishing my Grand Slam at Denny's, in Strasburg, VA, the GPS said that I'd get home at 1:55 AM. So I made my way home that night, and while I started to feel tired about half-way between Frederick and Baltimore, I was only about 20 minutes from home, so it wasn't a big deal. I got home and, despite my joyful cat's desire to play, collapsed on my bed. And thus ended my road trip.
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So here is a "by the numbers" for the trip:
17 Days
19 States Visited (21 if you count walking through Utah at Four Corners and the 1 minute I was in Illinois to get from Missouri to Kentucky, which are the only states that share a border, but no roads that cross the between the two)
6574 Miles Driven
15 Miles Walked at the Grand Canyon
$3339.25 Spent
5 National Park System Areas Visited
1 90's Video Game Console Purchased
2 NASCAR Races Attended
1 Real Texas Steakhouse Visited
14 Museums Visited
1 Hotel Night That I Was Afraid Was Going To Turn Into Murder Mystery
6 Sites That Were Created By Natural Erosion
2 Sites That Were Created By Man-made Erosion
1 Playthrough of The Beatles Discography
2 Times "Albuquerque" by Weird Al was Played in Albuquerque
1 Town Named After Me
5 Days With Rain
3 Sightings of Snow
AND
2 Greek Goddess Buffalo Burgers Consumed
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After I got home, I started putting together maps and spreadsheets to summarize the trip. You can get to the the spreadsheet at the link below, This summarizes what I did each day and the approximate costs. Because I paid for some stuff in cash, I accounted for those in the "other" row when I took money out of the ATM
Road Trip Spreadsheet
The maps I had to do in three maps because of the limits Google Maps has on the number of layers and changes in directions. You can see those below. They appear clearer if you hit the "View Larger Map" button.
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So is there anything I would have done differently on this trip? Not much as the trip went better than I could have imagined. The only days that I felt I could have done better were the two days that I spent in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. I saw all the stuff I wanted to there, but they wound up being underwhelming roadside attractions. Had I stuck to the interstate those days, I could have possibly done some interesting stuff in Omaha, Kansas City, or St Louis. On the other-hand, had I not driven the route I did those days, I probably would have not wound up going to Mammoth Caves, so I think things turned out for the best.
Another thing I would have done differently would be to get the hotel prices down. I spent on average $86.53 each night for a hotel. I could probably get that down to maybe $70 a night had I tried haggling, and settled for the Motel 6's and Super 8's of the world, since I was only staying there to sleep for the night.
As for the blog, while I enjoyed sharing my trip with people, it was very time consuming and felt like work. I think next time I might to a vlog or podcast and just use the blog for photos.
Lastly, I felt like there was a lot of stuff I had to just drive by and skip because I needed to get to the next city for the night. That is really just a reality of this kind of cross country trip because of the distances that need to be traveled each day. You can't really have "see everything" mentality when you are traveling 6600 miles. This does, however, lead into what I want to do next year.
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Next year I want to two separate trips that are more "contained" in their scope, probably one in late spring and the other in early fall. The idea is that I will visit one state on each trip and do stuff there for about two weeks. This will allow me do and see more things there and provide more flexibility of what I do each day since I would be traveling much less each day or staying in the same place for multiple days. At two states a year, I could see the entire US in about 25 years.
How am I going to pick the next two states? Randomly of course. I've assigned each state a number between 1 and 53, add 3 to the fifty states for DC, the US Territories in the Caribbean (such as Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, and the US Territories in the Pacific (such as Guam and American Samoa). Plugging that into a random number generator, I get five states. From those five states, I'll select the best two based on the following criteria:
- Cost
- Distance
- Interesting Sights
- Cool Roads
- Ability to see all of the state in two weeks
- Climbability of the highest point (I want to go to the highest point in all 50 states)
- Outdoor attractions
- Museums
- Race Tracks
- Food
- Weather
- Time of year to visit
- Coolness factor
So what states did the random number generator spit out?
- Pennsylvania
- Maryland
- Virginia
- Oregon
- Alaska
Well that's a bunch of extremes. They are either very, very close, or very, very far. Nothing in between. At first glance, there is a combination that would work out very well and I would like to do it, just not this year: Alaska and Maryland. Those two balance each very well from a cost standpoint, as visit over half of Maryland without the need for a hotel. But Alaska is still very expensive and I'd also like the drive there through Canada instead of fly, which would take about a week each way. Given that I'd probably have to take a month off from work to go to Alaska by car, and there sort of is an unwritten rule of not taking more than two consecutive weeks off, Alaska is off the table for now.
Right now I'm sort of leaning to towards Oregon and Pennsylvania, (I've already research Oregon as I did the selections about two weeks ago) but am open to suggestions. I'll be making my decision by the end of the year.
