[Demonhood]

Just returned from a weeklong trip across the US (hence Trogdor's conspicuous absence).
Thought I'd share a bit about it for you all.

(disclaimer: All comments are based on my limited experience of each region. We drove thru some areas pretty fast, so please don't feel too offended if I didn't like your state/town/outhouse.)

passengers: 2 adults and a TiVo plush toy
miles traveled: 3422 (5507km)
highest gas price: $2.36 lowest: $1.67
total gas costs: $204.78
deer seen: 40
road workers almost hit: 1
speeding tickets: 0 (almost got one in Minnesota going 85 in a 70)
highest speed achieved: 105mph
phrase of the trip: "Road Work Ahead!"
most surprising state: South Dakota
most underwhelming state: Wyoming (we didn't visit Yellowstone)
worst big town/city: Reno
worst small town: Battle Mountain (but points for the cool name)
best small town: Deadwood
severe thunderstorms conquered: several

I took around 330 photos during the trip. Still have to sort thru them all, but I'll be posting a summary of each state I went thru over the next few days (with pix).

[lil'babykitten]

Yay, he's back! They wondered where you were.

[Powaqqatsi]

$200 for gas with 5500 km travelled ?? I sure wish we had prices like that over here.

[Demonhood]

mystery solved

Some random US observations:

• No men's public restrooms east of Utah had toilet seat covers (those paper things).
• There are perfume dispensers in truckstop restrooms so that they don't have to buy deodorant.
• The weather channel can't predict the answer to a simple math equation.
• It gets muggier the further east you go. And it stays warm when it rains.
• Mullets are alive and well and living in Wyoming & South Dakota.
• Deer really do just kinda look dumbly at you when you drive at them.
• Saying Minnesota & South Dakota in the appropriate accent is fun.

[dillerX]

u were in MN and never stopped?

[Demonhood]

oops, forgot to mention: we were on a strict timetable during the trip. otherwise i would have bothered some of you fine folks in those middle states on my journey. we drove a minimum of 7 hours a day to get to our destination on time.

[xi_hyperon]

Welcome back Demonhood, we missed you. The list of those who need burnination has grown long during your absence. I'm looking forward to reading about your trip and seeing pics.

[MindFad]

Welcome back, 'Hooder. You didn't miss a whole lot.

Did you come down to Floorduh? You shoulda come down to Floorduh. I'm also looking forward to the pics and funny quotes.

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by MindFad:
I'm also looking forward to the pics and funny quotes.

Oh, yeah, the quotes. Don't skimp on the quotes please.

[Gankdawg]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
Mullets are alive and well and living in Wyoming & South Dakota.

[TheDisaster]

Originally posted by Demonhood:

• There are perfume dispensers in truckstop restrooms so that they don't have to buy deodorant.

You mean the ones that just spray the perfume out at you? The first time I saw that I was with my (ex)girlfriend's family on the way from Ohio to Alabama, and her sister wanted to see how much perfume you got. Expecting a little vial to come out from somewhere she put in her 75�, and was then sprayed in the face by perfume.

[mitchell_pgh]

Are you going to be placing some kind of map/timeline together?

Would love to know more...

[AKcrab]

Originally posted by TheDisaster:
Expecting a little vial to come out from somewhere she put in her 75�, and was then sprayed in the face by perfume.

Ha!!! That's funny!

[Demonhood]

yes, the perfume things were sprayers.

also, i'll have more pix on my actual site when i get em up. didn't wanna bog you guys down with too many. here's the first state...





California - Coastline madness.

First stop of note was in San Francisco. I had forgotten how much I dislike driving in that city (even just to connect to another freeway). No wonder everyone takes BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) everywhere.

Things learned:
-Marlboro is getting more clever with their marketing. Saw a couple guys in a club giving away free Zippos. All you had to do was give them your ID to scan (for marketing purposes) and they'd give you a free lighter.
-Vox vodka was giving away necklaces that lit up in the same club. No ID scan required.
-Even a matinee costs around $7.

Then on to Mendocino (north of SF).
Saw a giant sinkhole and climbed down into it:


Saw a small but relaxing waterfall a few miles down the road:


Mendocino is quite a pretty coastal town. They have a forest, the ocean, and banana slugs. What more could one ask for.

From there we continued our trek east. Into the wonder, the glory, the...desert....Nevada!

[gorickey]

Did you make it to Kansas?

If so, can't wait for the review...outta be a REAL page turner...

[voyageur]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
Mendocino is quite a pretty coastal town. They have a forest, the ocean, and banana slugs. What more could one ask for.

Be sure you post a good Banana Slug pic for those that have never seen one.

[lil'babykitten]

The waterfall looks beautiful!

[mitchell_pgh]

did you make it to central Pennsylvania...

Bar, church, bar, church, bar, church... monster truck rally... bar...

[Demonhood]

didn't make it to Kansas or Pennsylvania. i'll post a new state later on and you can get an idea of the path we took.

btw, this is a banana slug:



named for obvious reasons. it's also the mascot for UC Santa Cruz.

[villalobos]

Lucky you, my lady is on her way to a 35 day road trip across the USA.... I expect a few thousand pictures when she gets back. Once in a lifetime.

villa

[andi*pandi]

it's the way to do it. You did it in a week? you must have missed so much! or never slept. more pix pls!

[Demonhood]

yeah, we did it in a week. but we didn't go all the way to the east coast.
and yeah, we missed tons. and drove too fast.
but hey, still had fun.
nevada coming up shortly...

[historylme]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
didn't make it to Kansas or Pennsylvania. i'll post a new state later on and you can get an idea of the path we took.

btw, this is a banana slug:



named for obvious reasons. it's also the mascot for UC Santa Cruz.

GO SLUGS!!

I love that school, wish I could have stayed there longer. Awesome school.

[misc]

Looks like some great pictures, Demonhood. Can't wait to see more.

[Demonhood]

Nevada - Where no outhouse is too small for a slot machine.

Things to know about Nevada:
-Most of the state is barren. People come for Vegas, which is at the southern section of the state.
-We averaged 95mph thru the entire state.
-Every city has a casino.
-Every building has at least one form of gambling.
-Prostitution is only legal in a few counties. And this wasn't that kind of trip.
-Truckers can rent videos at one stop and return them at another. And yes, they had porn.
-A few truckstops also had a church trailer for the religious among them. To repent for what they did with the above mentioned porn perhaps.

I've been to Nevada several times, but rarely to the northern middle section. There's a reason for that. There's nothing there. For some reason Reno was on our list of places to stop for the night. We were not impressed. I have friends from Tahoe (nearby) that say some of the portrayals in Reno911 are pretty accurate. They had rundown buildings only a block from their shiny casinos. Someone didn't plan this town very well. Also, every street was under construction. I've never seen so many orange cones in my life.

This sums up Reno:


We ended up staying in Sparks instead. Just outside Reno, only half the funk.


The town sign pictured up top (Battle Mountain) has a story behind it. First off, Battle Mountain is a cool name. How could you go wrong with a name like that? Well, this town paid for a billboard along the freeway that read "Battle Mountain: voted the armpit of America!!!". No joke.
They didn't lie.
The only postcard with the words 'Battle Mountain' on it that I could find was of an intersection outside the place I bought the card. The picture was blurry.

We tried to wipe these memories from our mind as we moved towards the land of Mormons and salt....Utah.

[SOLIDAge]

demonhood

that'd be a rockin full sized Wallpaper! care to share

[itai195]

LOL, Nevada. What a joke of a state that place is

And yes, driving in San Francisco is hellish, I never leave that city without getting angry. I like Wyoming, you must not have gone to interesting places (eg Yellowstone, as you mentioned, Jackson Hole, and other various interesting spots).

[Demonhood]

Originally posted by SOLIDAge:
that'd be a rockin full sized Wallpaper! care to share

what size ya want? 1600x1200 ?

Originally posted by itai195:
I like Wyoming, you must not have gone to interesting places (eg Yellowstone, as you mentioned, Jackson Hole, and other various interesting spots).

yeah, we only went thru the souther and eastern part of that state. if we had headed up to Yellowstone i'm sure our tune would have changed. more on that once i get past Utah

oh, and an iPod with an iTrip is an invaluable travel tool when going thru such states.

[paully dub]

I take it you have some good Black Hills/ Plains type pics of South Dakota. My dad was born in Deadwood, by the way, and last time I was there ( ages ago ) I was shocked to see how much the town had changed - gambling galore. Did you see Wild Bill Hickock get shot?

South Dakota - the Black Hills especially has loads to see, tons of stuff like caves, snakefarms, buffalo ranches and such off the highway -r eal hokey fun!

[cszar2001]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
what size ya want? 1600x1200 ?

How about 1440*900?
What camera is that?

[Lateralus]

We wanna see a picture of you Hooder!

[Demonhood]

1600 version of cave
1440 version of cave

it doesn't look as good big as i would have liked it to. but hey, it's a small 3MP camera (Canon S230)

[cszar2001]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
1600 version of cave
1440 version of cave

it doesn't look as good big as i would have liked it to. but hey, it's a small 3MP camera (Canon S230)

Doesn`t matter. You`ve just earned a place on my "cool-people" list!

[ReggieX]

Great pics so far, looking forward to the whole write up!

And then you can lock your own thread

[itai195]

At what point did you start burninating the countryside, if I may be so bold?

[Demonhood]

Utah - Land of salt and Mormons. Did I mention the salt?

I have no idea what that thing is in the 'Utah' photo, btw. But it was picture worthy.
The only place we stopped in Utah was Salt Lake City. Mostly because we went thru the skinny part at the top.

The salt flats (which start right at the border with Nevada) were impressive. Pure white in sections, completely flat, going on for miles.

SLC is all about the Mormons. We took a brief tour of their compound. The man at the visitor center was very enthusiastic about sharing his faith. Good hire.
We didn't stay in this state long, so I can't say much.

Here's a statue of Brigham Young right outside the Mormon grounds:

That's Brigham at the top. A native American at the right. And a crusty old prospector in the middle.

This is the gargantuan temple in the center of everything:


As we put distance between us and anyone wearing a short sleeved white shirt with a black tie, we discovered that (because of time) we could never make it to Yellowstone and still get to our destination. So we headed toward the state where cowboy's reign supreme: Wyoming.

[starman]

Will we see pix of Devil's Tower?

Were you looking for Harrison Ford's place? .

Mike

[AKcrab]

Boy, you should have skipped the temple and hit Yellowstone.

[D'Espice]

Demonhood:

This is awesome man, keep going. Did you make it to Illinois?

[Demonhood]

Originally posted by starman:
Will we see pix of Devil's Tower?

sadly no. it was another location that got the axe. we missed the Grand Tetons as well. i mean, the captions for those just write themselves.

Originally posted by D'Espice:
This is awesome man, keep going. Did you make it to Illinois?

we did. mostly just drove thru it, so i don't know if i have enough for its own post. but i'll take a look at what i have. i did fly out of there though. so at the very least i know that the Chicago airport has cool toilets.

[D'Espice]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
we did. mostly just drove thru it, so i don't know if i have enough for its own post. but i'll take a look at what i have. i did fly out of there though. so at the very least i know that the Chicago airport has cool toilets.

Which one? We have two airports you know, O'Hare and Midway

[Demonhood]

Originally posted by D'Espice:
Which one? We have two airports you know, O'Hare and Midway

O'Hare i think. hard to know which is which when you're just catching a connecting flight.

[andi*pandi]

well, since Midway is the airport equivalent of an armpit, I'm sure it was O'hare.

[D'Espice]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
O'Hare i think. hard to know which is which when you're just catching a connecting flight.

If it was a connecting flight, it was O'Hare for sure. Once you enter Midway, you never leave the armpit!
However I don't really remember the O'Hare toilets anymore; after all, it's been a while.

[smcgheek]

since when do you have an iTrip? awesome.

[ASIMO]

Did you help the banana slug on its way to the salt flats?

[Demonhood]

Wyoming - Fences, fences, and oh yeah, more fences.

These fences, pictured above, were a mystery until a friend explained them upon my return. They're everywhere. You couldn't go 5 miles without seeing a seemingly randomly placed snow fence. Since we didn't go to Devil's Tower or Yellowstone, we only saw the southern and eastern parts of Wyoming. Which, btw, is the really uninteresting part.

I did get to witness big burly truck drivers watching the show "Judging Amy". They had a running commentary, one guy catching the other up on the storyline thus far. Key line of dialogue: "Damn, I never seen a judge that young. Oh yeah."

Here's a little taste of Wyoming:

They're very into the cowboy image. And big trucks, apparently. We stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming's most populated city (population 60,000 I think). Wyoming is definitely for people that like big open spaces. And despise human contact.

As we got closer to South Dakota we spotted a few rocks like this one:

Not quite Devil's Tower, but it would have to do.

We decided to travel north, to see Mt.Rushmore (despite the severe thunderstorm warnings). So we ventured through the Black Hills Forest, entering a land they like to call: South Dakota.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
most surprising state: South Dakota

Why was that? I'm just curious because South Dakota is my home state (not there anymore, though).

[Demonhood]

South Dakota was a lot more beautiful, with a lot more to see, than we ever expected. And it was also a welcome land of green and forest after our travel thru Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
South Dakota was a lot more beautiful, with a lot more to see, than we ever expected. And it was also a welcome land of green and forest after our travel thru Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.