White Sox pic

Dragon and I in front of the statue commemorating the White Sox World Series Championship in 2005. Check out my pitching form! hahah! yes, I'm supposed to be posed like I'm pitching. Totally incorrect technique, but whatever.

Repeat Omaha Roadtrip

Driving from Omaha to csprings for the 2nd time in 5 days!! This time was very unplanned though. George, MJ, Christine, and I's flight got cancelled this morn so we decided to just drive back since I couldn't get back on a flight until 1030p, and those other guys not till tomorrow. Fun! kinda! Maybe we'll stop and see the beautiful Quizno's lady.

Roadtripping would have been faster

By the time my flight leaves for Omaha, I'll have been in the airport for more than 10 hours!! yikes! Nobody ever said I was an efficient traveler, but this stop certainly destroys any of the hour-long roadtrip stops.

The adventure continues

Well the road trip is over, but I still plan on putting up some other pics and videos from the trip so be sure to check back in.

Later today - in less than 6 hours actually - I leave for Omaha, Nebraska. And you know what they say about Omaha...

Final Driving Stats

I made a good push on the last day, but not enough to overcome Dragon. Here are the final numbers:

Dragon miles: 1283.2
Russell miles: 1006.8

No. of stops: 13. Right in between our guesses. (And we're not playing Price is Right rules, so it's a true draw.)

The C-470 scam

Don't EVER take C-470 to get around Denver from I-76 to I-25. Even if you've just driven over 2000 miles and you just want to get home, it's advantage is still questionable. It's a SCAM!!! We paid $8.50 in tolls just to drive 30 miles! Now that's just ridiculous.

Tornadoes

Our radio listening in Nebraska was constantly interrupted for pretty much the entire 4 hours in the state...by the emergency broadcast system telling us about tornado warnings!! yeah, yikes. luckily, we got spun up in the air and then gently placed down again on the road by a little friendly tornado. no damage.

We're in CO now. After refueling with the most beautiful Quiznos toad princess, we're 2-3 hrs away now.

20th Annual World Pork Expo

Yep. This is what we ran into last night in Des Moines. http://www.worldpork.org

Home stretch!

At the start of today's drive, here's how it measured up:

Dragon miles: 1010.1
Russell miles: 550.9
No. of stops: 9
No. of random humongous Jesus statues: 1

Sleeping is awesome

It's 4:30am. We're in Des Moines, Iowa. We almost got shut out of hotels because of a freaking National Pork Expo, but we got saved by an awesome dude at the Country Inn & Suites who gave us the only room he had at a big discount and a late check-out. Later.

Dragon got crazy last night

...and got a tattoo.

more White Sox game pics

Hitchhikers

We picked up a couple extra passengers at Cedar Point.

ChiSox game

In Chicago for the White Sox game! We got sweet seats and we're definitely chowing down. So far, we've each had 2 corn on the cobs, I've had a 'Comiskey Dog', and Dragon went with the mini chicken tacos and chicken tenders. yummmm!

Post-game, we're shooting for 5 hrs of driving which will leave us with about 10 hrs for Wednesday.

A Comiskey Dog. Looks delicious, huh?? I don't even like pickles!

Driving stats update

We left Cedar Point for Chicago about 15 minutes ago and already we're about to make our 2nd stop. hahah! We stopped so I could get a bottle of water and watch a clip on YouTube, and then we saw a sign for an Einstein Bagels off the highway and we can't pass it up.

This will bring our stop total to 8.
Dragon miles: 747.8
Russell miles: 181.1

Cedar Point Review

Awesome park. If you go, definitely go when school is in session. We hit up 8 of the 17 coasters, including Millenium Force twice. Beware of the Iron Dragon....NOT! But ironically, that's the coaster that almost made Dragon lose it.

The Top Thrill Dragster is awesome. It tops out at 120mph...and it hits that speed almost immediately! It's freaking awesome! You fly off the start and then go straight up vertical 400 feet before peaking at the top and going straight down 400 feet! Sick! It's a short ride, but definitely worth the wait.

Check out these roller coaster records. Top Thrill and Millenium Force are all over this: http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/records/steel_records.shtml

A quick video for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmEGaQpDOAQ

Hopefully I'll add some pics soon too.

Trip Overview

A: 5/31, Depart NYC
B: 6/1, Continue drive to Cincinnati (Reds vs. Braves), then drive to Cedar Point.
C: 6/2, Cedar Point amusement park
D: 6/3, Drive to Chicago (White Sox vs. Royals), then start drive to csprings.
E: 6/4, Finish drive to csprings.

Cedar Point, kidddd!!!

A Nyquil and 10.5 hours of sleep will definitely do wonders for you. I feel a million times better today with just a little bit of leftover sick. Hopefully I'll be 100% tomorrow so I can rally to pick up my driving slack!

Cedar Point has 17 coasters!! 3 down so far. Millenium Force is BEAST!!! wow. smooth ride and long, sick drops.

Coasters!

Millenium Force

Bottled water

Does anyone else believe in a hierarchy of bottled water? I think Fiji is clearly dominant, then everything else is about the same, and then Dasani is a distant last. I really dislike Dasani. Example: I just bought a random Enon Springs bottle over Dasani.

Dragon thinks it's all the same.

Driving stats update

Dragon: 505.3 miles
Russell: 170.3 miles
Stops so far: 4
GNR songs on the radio: 5
Number of humongous random Jesus statues: 1

Reds 6, Braves 2

This is the backwards part of the trip. We just left the Reds game and now we're driving north AND east to Cedar Point amusement park. ah well. 4 hrs of driving. I need to sleeeeeeep.

Good news is that the Reds won. The chili cheese coneys are GREAT. I had two. Jay Bruce is a beast. No homer for Junior so he's at 599 still. Braves suck.

Chili Cheese Coney Close-ups

A GNR Revival

Dude! Guns n Roses all over this trip! On the radio last night, we got Sweet Child 2 times and Don't Cry 1 time. This morning Dragon picked up Sweet Child on the radio while I heard Don't Cry in the hotel lobby during checkout. Dragon says: Maybe GnR just got to this area.

Dragon also says: If it were up to my alarm setting capabilities, we would get to the game at 4.

I've been kinda a negative force on this trip thus far. Between my flight coming in 6 hrs late and delaying our departure to being sick to silencing my alarm this morning, its like I'm trying to prevent this trip from going through. The only reason we're not still sleeping right now is bc Dragon set a back-up alarm.

4+ hrs to Cincy.