Thanks, peace out, and the B Side

This is my last post (I think. Unless I think of something to add, in which case I will go ahead and add it).

Despite the artistic prowess with which this blog has been developed, there were lots of pictures that didn't make it into the posts. And also, as it turns out, some highly mediocre video. But if you're interested, here's the stuff that for whatever reason, maybe because posting from my phone doesn't always work, didn't make the original cut.

Roxy and Snap get after it


Gibbedy singalong


The magical world of Cabela's


The crazy storm in Iowa
Roxy attempting to help with the driving
The polar bear up close I would like to say thanks to all the wonderful people who helped make this roadtrip and this blog so much fun. Thanks to everyone who read, and everyone who commented (especially Anonymous and the Fossil who were incredibly reliable fans). Thanks to Thelma (our broker, who probably isn't reading this but rocks nonetheless). And of course, thanks to La Quinta for fronting our trip. Every lq we stayed in was, as we expected, clean, friendly, and reliable. It was a great trip. Maybe we'll do it again some day...

Day 6 - Jibboom!

7am - There is a lovely river in Sacramento with a bike path that you can walk along. It was on the bike path this morning that Roxy remembered she is afraid of bikes. So we didn't get too far.

8:15am - This La Quinta has outdoor seating in the breakfast area. Winning! We are biding our time because we won't be able to get into our new place until noon.

Also this lq is on Jibboom St. So "Jibboom goes the dynamite!" is our new favorite phrase. So I figure this old video is relevant:


10:16am - so close!



11:51am over the bay bridge and into the city! Officially here.

Last night on the road

At dinner we determined that driving 10hrs a day for multiple days makes us both pretty tweaky. But burgers helped with that.

Downtown Sacramento is kind of a bizarro ghosttown without people on the streets, but the one block with people has a place called burgers and brews that makes a mean jalapeno bacon burger. The very friendly bartender carded us and when I didn't have my id he wasn't even a little phased, as if to say, yeah, I know, you're for sure over 21. But other than that he was charming.

We followed that up with chatting with strangers in the hottub. Like you do.

Tomorrow we get to sf!

Day 5- getting close

7:57am Change of plans today. Mainly because you can't always get the hotel room you want if you wait till the day of to reserve it. Oops. So we're headed to Sacramento instead of Reno today.

8:45am - the great salt lake




10:05am - totally forgot to blog about dinner last night! We ate at a place billed as the best Indian food in Utah. It was definitely good. They had cauliflower naan which I had never seen before but was totally into. The mango lassi was delish and the vindaloo which we ordered spicy was REALLY spicy. Also worth noting that it was in a totally sketchy part of town, as was our lq. Anyway, I was reminded about this because we just decided that we're going to eat lunch at the "best Mexican restaurant in Elko, NV." get psyched.

10:11am - Salt flats. So cool looking.




9:18am damn. Just completely missed the Nevada sign. I really need to try harder. Welcome to NV. Also, welcome to pacific time. Also, post Utah, God is still behind, but catching up. score is 11-7.

12:43pm El Aguilar Real in Battle Mountain NV (Pete insists on calling Battle Mountain Battle Axe Mountain and is lobbying really hard for me to post a picture of a battle axe). If you're ever in the middle of nowhere Nevada, this place is worth the stop. I'm sure it beats the place we didn't end up going to in Elko.



5:05pm - Hello California!!


5:22pm - they check cars for produce coming into cali. Bizarre.

7:00pm - It is 95 degrees outside La Quinta Sacramento. I guess this is our last day of summer...

Wyoming is a long state

with not a lot going on after Cheyenne. At least in the southern bit. But most of the way there are beautiful mountains and that's nice.

After the 8235th billboard, we did stop at Little America for 50cent soft serve ice cream. And that was pretty wonderful.

Then we got to Utah! Here's the sign. My worst yet, I'm afraid.
The mountains are really gorgeous here and much closer (I kind of love mountains. They never get old). And this La Quinta, although it doesn't have a rodeo pageant going on, it is full of participants in a youth soccer tournament. So that's something.

Day 4 - mountain time

7:30am - entering mountain time! We're attempting to go to Ole's for breakfast.

7:34am - Ole's doesn't do breakfast. Fail.

7:53am Ogalalla! Best town name ever. Jury still out on breakfast.

9:49am - leaving Cabellas in Sidney NE. This place is amazing. Took so many more pictures than I can post. Dad, found your bday present:


Also:



10:40am - Wyoming!


10:56 - mountains! Still not close enough for pics though.

11:35am - lunch time in Cheyenne. Some people just waved and said hi as they drove by me. Wow. So not the northeast. Eating at The Bread Basket. The sandwiches look gooood.

12:33pm


2:19 - halfway across Wyoming and totally rocking out to Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Huey Lewis and INXS. Hat tip and huge props to Jess.

Nebraska, in general

We've arrived at the No. Platte NE La Quinta and it's definitely the nicest one yet. Our room is lovely, the woman at front desk offered us dinner recommendations, they have a fitness center, a dog run, and all the other stuff. They also have omg so many mosquitoes. Not inside though. And that's not an LQ thing so much as a Nebraska thing it seems.

We started our afternoon here meeting JK for lunch in Omaha. After Roxy briefly escaped and ran loose in his neighborhood he took us to the best Thai restaurant in Nebraska. The name of which I didn't catch, but it was good! And spicy. Also JK greeted us with an apple pie and other marvelous gifts. If you're reading this, you're the best, dude.

Anyway, that started us off right in this state. Since then we've mostly driven straight. And here we are. Just in time for Miss Teen Rodeo Nebraska! At our very own la Quinta!

Day 3

Good morning!

8:11am - Pete and I are betting how many McDonalds we'll see in Iowa. I say 20. He says 30. We're not actually in Iowa yet. But it's good to be ready.

8:15am - Truck full of piglets!!
8:33am - Sex, 5 - God, 3

9:11am - crossing the Mississippi. It looks big and full, but not flooding up here.


9:12am - I am terrible at taking pictures of the welcome signs.


9:44am As awesome as promised:


12:47pm - monsoon in Des Moines so we can't see it but assume it's there nonetheless. Ladders on the road, lots of lightening. Also pete thinks I should acknowledge my inability to differentiate between it's and its. Sorry about that.

1:58pm - In honor of our approach to Nebraska I am singing all of the songs from Oklahoma to Pete. Since we're not going there, but this is sort of close. He's thrilled.

Hola!

We are in Peru, IL. At Lq. As it happens, earlier this year we were in Peru, South America so it seems only right to compare and contrast the experiences. To be fair, we've only been here 10 hours, all of them at la Quinta, but that's ok.

Peru the country: has Macchu Picchu, and many mountain views.
Peru the LQ: considerably flatter, with a view of Target.
The country has great food, especially soups, and pisco sours.
The LQ, as you know, has free breakfast.
The country has llamas and alpacas.
The LQ has pets!
The country has inca walls and inca trails.
The LQ has a pool. AND a hot tub.
Country's got chicha, and inka kola.
The pool here is open till midnight.

You decide.

Day 2 (part 3, Indiana)

5:55pm - You may not be able to read the sign, but we have entered Indiana!

8:20pm - 7:20pm! Hello time change. We appreciate you.







7:33pm this is the Illinois sign. I guess this is what we get for driving west. Nice sunset though. Oh also, we totally just had to back up in a toll lane. So not cool.

Day 2 (part 2, OH)

1:50pm Ohio!













2:18pm Ohio license plate. Confederate flag. Real classy. Also, was Ohio even part of the confederacy? Maybe this guy is confused.








3:05pm things that are awesome. 70mph speed limit. David Sedaris.

4:38pm The Rox on the side of the highway somewhere in OH. 300some miles to go today.


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Pittsburgh gets it's own post

We stopped for delicious brunch at Meg and Dave's place in pa. Coffee and eggs and bacon and puppies! There's Snap and Roxy. They played and played. And then fought. Oops.


Which led to rox getting cut on her ear, which meant when she shook her head she spattered Meg and Dave's entire living room with blood. Big oops. Here's Meg cleaning blood out of the rug.


We are so not getting invited back.

But thanks for the break, guys!! So good to see you!

On to Ohio.

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Day 2 (Part 1, PA)

Trying something different today. Going to see if we can actually live blog as we go. We'll see whether it works...

7:06am Plan to be at breakfast at 7am foiled. But we're packing. Roxy is not eating her breakfast.

7:22am Breakfast! Raisin bran, check.

7:40am Driving. It's gross out. And early. And Fathers Day! Happy fathers day Dad!!

8:44am Not much happening in pa this morning. But it has come to my attention that today is not actually father's day. Oopsie doops. 144miles to go before our next turn. According to Bonnie.

8:51am Pitstop. Pete has the bladder of a small child. Roxy has taken to exiting the car from the passenger door.

9:14am Turns out we're going past Pittsburgh! Surprise visit to Megan and Dave!

9:23am What are gangsta shorts?

10:57am We've developed a new game. It's called sex or god. Basically it involves counting the billboards for adult superstores and billboards advertising god, and betting on who will have the most. Right now its 3-2 Sex. We'll keep you posted.

11:04am First missed exit. Worst gps followers ever.

Harrisburg LQ

We've arrived at our first la quinta! After saying sad goodbyes in ct we drove through some appalling rainstorms and past a shocking number of sheepskin stores and just as we got here the sky cleared. We missed the pa sign too. It's hard to know when they're coming!
In case you wondered whether they would know who we are, they don't. We aren't lq celebrities it turns out. But Daniel at the front desk was super friendly and when I asked how he was doing I do believe he said "just ducky!" which I took to be a good thing. And then he gave roxy a giant milkbone. Daniel's the man.
Our room was freezing but that was easily fixed. Otherwise it's lovely.


Time to go to the Lancaster Brewing Co for dinner (thanks for the recommendation, Sally!!).

Location:Eisenhower Blvd,Harrisburg,United States

Bienvenido a new jersey!

The eastern states go by so quickly!






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CT into NY

"a young mother and her child are ruthlessly gunned down while returning to their car..."

That's how the description of our first book on tape begins. Cheery!

Crap. I missed the welcome to new York sign. Fail.

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On the road!

Roxy is settled in for day one.


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Goodbye, Have!

The movers are here! moving stuff. fast.
It's been a good run, New Haven.


We'll miss you.

Turns out that if you want to get rid of a broken stationary bicycle from the 70s, the best way to do it is to go to the New Haven dump. But it's not really that simple. First, Google maps sends you to an address which doesn't exist. Bonnie, the gps, did one better and sent us down a terrifying side road with all sorts of No Trespassing on Penalty of Death type signs (and No Dumping signs, which, in retrospect, I should have agreed with Pete were a clear sign that we were not in the right spot, but at the time I had some other logic going on), that we drove down nevertheless. At the end of the terrifying road they confirmed that we were indeed not at the dump, but pointed to a hill and said that the dump was over that hill. They didn't know how to get there via roads, but, you know, as the crow flies is kind of helpful I guess.

Anyway, after finding two school bus depots we found the dump! Which is very confusing because it is covered in "Do Not Enter" signs. We asked another guy and he explained that the "Do Not Enter" signs? They're wrong. They just haven't changed them yet. They should actually say "Enter." Obvi.

After another chat with a very nice man we dumped the bike (that's the first picture) and left.
After our very productive (if longer than expected) dump trip we had a big storm and lost power. Power outages mean less packing and more wine! So we drank a super delicious bottle of wine (Thanks, Dad!!) out of plastic cups and sat around being pleased with ourselves that we hadn't yet packed all the candles. Why we've packed all the glasses but not all the candles is not entirely clear.

And here's me spilling wax on myself by accident. Holy crap we're leaving tomorrow.

Wendy's

This one goes out to everyone I worked with down at the South Street Seaport back in the day. The food down there is disastrous and often overpriced for tourists, but there was always Wendy's. Lunch: 5 piece nuggets, jr cheeseburger, and small fries or a small frosty - for $3.22!! Dude. That's value. Just sayin.

So anyway, even though it can't be good for me, road trip means we get to stop at Wendy's!! And that's where we are right now. Actually this is us leaving. Bye!!

La Quinta in Walla Walla, Washington

I can't believe how long I've been writing this blog without linking to this:



Rookie mistake.

Anyway, LQ doesn't enter the story until the end but its worth listening to the whole 10 minutes if you haven't heard it before. Promise.

(Thanks to DKC for reminding me about this. Not surprising that she's full of good ideas since she's a web guru with her own--much more important--whatnot going on at www.educationnation.com)

Oh! Also! Just booked our first night! Woo!

The Route

View Larger Map

Some of you have asked, so here it is. This is the route we're taking.

Its basically Rte 80 all the way once we're past Harrisburg, PA.

If you have suggestions of things to do or see along the way (e.g. the world biggest ball of yarn, the best milkshake ever, etc.) let me know.

T-3 days!

Found

Things discovered when packing today:

1 totally disgusting piece of fake hair. Its kind of like sticking a dead animal to your head. I don't know where it came from or why I have it. ew.

2 glowsticks. unused.

And one Unbelievable frog. So amazing.

More packing...

In lieu of packing (because the movers refuse to tell me when they're coming - if this blog was about them it would NOT be saying nice things) I am considering building a castle out of tupperware. Do I really keep all of this?? Anyone still in New Haven want some of it?

Update: LQ is on board!!

Holy cow La Quinta wrote me back! And even better! They said they're willing to work with us! Wo. Once again, they've demonstrated their awesomeness.
Nicely done, La Quinta. Nicely done.


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Sunset over the Have

Going to miss this place.
Meanwhile, in CA: This.
In other news, our movers still haven't told us what day they're coming. So maybe we won't leave after all...

Packing. And a request for music.

I'm packing. I'm pretty sure I am not doing a good job at it. And all of our dishes are going to break as a result. Which will make me sad. I'm going to need more bubble wrap. Here are the bubbles. In the store it looks like a lot but its so not enough!!

And here's Roxy not helping.

Also, I need music suggestions. For packing. And for the driving! Any suggestions?

Right now I am rocking out to the country station. Yup. That's right. Country. Keith Urban baby. But there's only so much of that I can take.

Name change

I had to change the title of the blog because I loved the comment on what article to use. Hopefully, being responsible for the new title will brighten your day, m.

Oh. I just lost a bet to Pete and had to change it back. Boo.

The Email Goes Out

To follow up on the awkward voicemail, here's the email... (many thanks to my copywriter!)

Dear La Quinta Marketing Team,

I’m writing with a simple, quirky barter proposal.

I realize you probably don’t receive or entertain many barter proposals, especially via email, but I figured we have nothing to lose.

You see, we’re big fans of LaQuinta.

So, I won’t be upset if you say no to this proposal or ignore this email. (I figure you probably have much more important things to tend to anyways).

That said, here’s the back story:

My husband Pete and I (and our dog, Roxy) are moving across country from New York to San Francisco on June 11th.

The other day, I was telling my friend Christina about our trip and she asked where we’ll be staying on the road. Would we be camping? Would we be staying in hotels?

I told her the truth: We’re staying in La Quintas all the way across the country.

In fact, I have literally planned our entire cross-country road trip based on the location of LaQuintas across I-80.

Why?

Because LaQuinta is clean, reasonably priced, you let dogs stay for free, and you have free coffee and breakfast.

When I told Christina this, she said “That’s awesome. You should live blog your trip – and I bet you could convince La Quinta to comp you free rooms for it.”

So, basically that’s the proposal:

I’ll live blog our adventure and share it with our hundreds of friends and family, stirring up some very favorable buzz and word-of-mouth.

In exchange, I’m asking for 5 free nights (June 11-15) as we drive across I-80 from New York to California.

So what do you think?

Sincerely,

Sam Kennedy

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure...

I’ve actually already started the blog here: http://laquintaroadtrip.blogspot.com/2011/05/idea.html

And I’ll definitely be live-blogging our adventure (and staying in La Quintas all the way) whether or not you decide to comp me, Pete and Roxy 5 free nights.

P.P.S. We’re not asking you to give us free rooms because we’re desperate and need the help. We just think it’d be kinda fun and very cool.

So let us know what you think!

We’ll assume that if you don’t respond you thought it was awesome too -- but you had to stay silent because
this deal would never get past the legal department...

Oh man

I just tried to call La Quinta and left a completely dysfunctional voicemail for the EVP of marketing. I wish I had recorded it so I could post it here.

I forgot to leave a phone number. Let's leave at that.

Fail.

(But the message did give an email address to which all proposals should be sent. Hope isn't lost yet!)

Strategy

Last night we had our last ever pizza night at cait and dan's. pizza night is when dan makes pizza and we all eat it as second dinner. Some sort of first dinner is usually necessary too because the pizza isnt ready till 10 or 11. dinner 1 holds down the fort.
Pizza night, in addition to being delicious, served as strategy session part 2. Time is running out and I am doing a terrible job getting lq on board with this plan.

Here is dan telling me what that what I have to do is call them! today! so that's what I'm going to do.






(This is my first attempt at posting from my phone. Sorry if it looks weird.)

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