Filed under: memories
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The Complete Setlist
- Detroit, MI
- Cleveland, OH
- Forestville, NY
- Syracuse, NY
- Hancock, NH
- Boston, MA
- East Lyme, CT
- Philadelphia, PA
- Cologne, NJ
- Washington, DC
- Charleston, SC
- Savannah, GA
- Brunswick, GA
- Miami, FL
- Bonita Springs, FL
- Sarasota, FL
- Mobile, AL
- New Orleans, LA
- Beaumont, TX
- Austin, TX
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM
- Roswell, NM
- Santa Fe, NM
- Telluride, CO
- Moab, UT (Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park)
- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Zion National Park, UT
- Kanab, UT
- Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim & South Rim), AZ
- Las Vegas, NV
- Joshua Tree National Park, CA
- San Diego, CA
- San Clemente, CA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Monterey, CA
- San Francisco, CA
- Muir Woods National Monument, CA
- The side of the road at various places in coastal California
- Crater Lake National Park, OR (for about an hour)
- Salem, OR
- Portland, OR
- Olympia, WA
- Seattle, WA
- Spokane, WA
- Glacier National Park, MT
- Bozeman, MT
- Yellowstone National Park, MT/WY
- Jackson, WY (Grand Tetons National Park)
- Side of the road somewhere in Casper, WY
- Wind Cave National Park, SD
- Mount Rushmore National Monument, SD
- Badlands National Park, SD
- Wall, SD
- A rest stop somewhere in eastern South Dakota
- Minneapolis, MN
- Milwaukee, WI
- Chicago, IL
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Road Trip By Numbers
127: days on the road
$4,132.27: total decrease in my bank account from day 1 to day 127
$32.54: approximate decline in savings per day
$4.29: most expensive gas price, per gallon, purchased (middle of nowhere, Texas)
$3.32: cheapest gas price, per gallon, purchased (Wyoming)
17,000+: miles traveled (I didn’t keep track–can you believe it?? Oy.)
3: hostels stayed in
13: national parks visited
35: states driven through
6: time zone switches
1: turkeys wrestled
1,749: pictures taken
4: oil changes for the Blueberry
0: percent sales tax in Montana! What?!
44: friends and relatives ambushed during the trip
2: brewery tours attended
3: shots of kava consumed
57: post cards collected
2: sunrises watched
3: bears seen in the wild (from a safe distance)
14: museums visited
5: hotel continental breakfasts crashed
6: times I stayed with total strangers
15: nights spent in my car
2: other female solo travelers met
1: near-death experience
0: car troubles had
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The Best…
- Sandwich: Three-way tie between the Duck Club in Charleston, the shrimp po’ boy in New Orleans, and the pork jibarito in Chicago
- Hotel/Hostel: Hostel in the Forest
- Tourist trap: the Cabazon Dinosaurs
- Museum: Three-way tie between the Mütter Museum, the World Erotic Art Museum, and the Experience Music Project & Science-Fiction Museum
- National Park: Glacier National Park
- Cave: Carlsbad Caverns
- People: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Continental Breakfast: Holiday Inn Express
- Pie: Houston’s in Kanab, Utah
- Accent: The ladies from Minnesota I met while at Bryce Canyon
- Billboard/sign: “Thanks, 2011 Logging Convention — it was off the chain!” in Hill City, South Dakota
- Bartender: Tie between Landon, at Ted’s Montana Grill in Bozeman, Montana; and Strawberry, at the Mystic Water Kava Bar in Hollywood, Florida
- Local Cuisine: Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Drink deals: Miami, Florida (free sangria) and Chicago, Illinois ($1 beers)
- Brewery Tour: Sam Adams’ in Boston, Massachusetts
- Nightlife: Austin, Texas
- Drive: Highway 1 in California
- Hike: Hidden Canyon Trail in Zion National Park
- Small Town: Telluride, Colorado
- Big (to me) City: Tie between Boston and D.C.
The Worst…
- Hotel/Hostel: The Motel 6 in Charleston, South Carolina
- National Park: Joshua Tree National Park
- Tourists: Tie between those at the Grand Canyon and those at Yellowstone
- Museum: The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (Runners-up: Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center and D.C.’s National Museum of the American Indian. They didn’t win because at least I didn’t have to pay for them.)
- Traffic: Los Angeles, California
- Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese from the Thunderbird Lodge in Carmel, Utah
- Accent: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Tourist Trap: Wall Drug, South Dakota
- Parking Regulations: San Diego, California
- Continental Breakfast: Days Inn
- Hike: Double O Arch Trail, Arches National Park
- Weather: Milwaukee, Wisconsin & Chicago, Illinois (blame the heatwave)
- Car-”Camping” Experience: White’s City, New Mexico
- Roadkill Problem: miles of flattened armadillos from Northern Florida to Louisiana
- Destination Letdown: Savannah, Georgia
- Place to Run Out of Gas: West Texas
- Interview Disappointment: Author Mary Roach (canceled)
- City to Visit on a Budget: Los Angeles, California
- Small Town: Roswell, New Mexico
- Big (to me) City: Las Vegas, Nevada
Filed under: advice
Wynne Delacoma is an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, where she teaches arts reporting and writing. Before 2006, she was a full-time staff critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, where she covered classical music, dance, and the opera.
Filed under: trips
"Land of Really Tall Buildings"
As I said goodbye to my friend Eric in Milwaukee, he gave me a tight hug and told me to have fun in Chicago. When I pulled away to walk to my car, I could see a large splotch of beige makeup on his black tee shirt, a profile silhouette which was suspiciously Lisa-shaped. My face was literally melting off.
This did not bode well.
Filed under: trips
On the Miller Brewery Tour
My beloved Midwest was conspiring against me.
In Minneapolis–where everyone told me it was best to experience the city by walking around and seeing the parks and lakes–it rained practically every day I was there. And any of the museums that I planned to use as my emergency back-up activities were closed because a little thing called the government was shut down.
(They miraculously fixed that the last day I was in town.)
When I arrived in Milwaukee, the heat wave that would last all week was just getting started. There would be absolutely no wandering–just precise movement to get me from one place of air-conditioned bliss (Eric’s house) to another (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2).
But you know what never lets you down in a time of crisis, of government shut down, of ridiculous, disgusting, sticky heat?
Beer.
Just my luck, Milwaukee had plenty of it.
