When I bought my dad’s ’95 Golf last year, it made a lot of sense, planning, as we were, to move to the Pacific Northwest, not far from the car’s home in Alaska. A quick trip on a ferry, or a nice drive down the Alcan, and she’d be home. When our plans changed and I applied to school in Rochester, it didn’t quite make as much sense, but it was too late by then – and who am I to pass up the opportunity for a genuine cross-country road trip?

Aimee and I flew out to Seattle on August 16, where we picked up the Golf from WallyPark, where it was miraculously waiting for us after being shipped from Anchorage to Tacoma. We stayed with Amanda and Darius outside Seattle, and enjoyed two days of sightseeing, including the EMP, The Seattle Public Library, and the Seattle Underground Tour.

After three days in Seattle, during which time we both developed colds that would plague us for pretty much the entire trip, we set off East, with a brief stop at Jamba Juice Redmond with Brent for a little fuel for the road. We spent the day crossing (long) Washington and (short) Idaho, stopping for lunch in Coeur d’Alene. We enjoyed a number of great sights in the area, including the famed “Building Shaped Like a Miner’s Hat,” in Kellogg, Idaho, also home to the “Bavarian-Themed Village” and the “Sunshine Mine Disaster Memorial,” though we couldn’t find that last one.



We spent the night in Missoula, Montana, and the next day, made our way south through Butte towards Wyoming. Butte had another host of interesting things to visit, including the Berkeley Pit, Our Lady of the Rockies, the The Dumas Brothel Museum, and Matt’s Drive-In, the oldest in Montana, where we dined on cheap grilled cheese sandwiches and massive milkshakes.

We ended that day in Jackson, Wyoming, where we walked around the town center, popping in a few galleries and trying to avoid the shootout demonstration that was taking place in the main street. We enjoyed dinner and a drink at the Snake River Brewery, and crashed early due to our persistent colds.

The next morning, we set off on the beautiful drive east and south from Jackson, past the Grand Tetons, past a few bison near and on the road, and through places like Shoshoni, home of Yellowstone Drug, with a lunch counter that serves more than 60,000 milkshakes a year. We also passed through Hell’s Half Acre, Dubois, and Douglas, the home of the Jackalope.

We spent the night at my cousin Stephanie’s place in Wheatland, Wyoming, where we enjoyed the company of the family and their eight new puppies. The next day, we headed south through Loveland, where we had lunch with my grandma, and then ended the short driving day in Denver, where we stayed with Anne and Moss in their great little house.

Knowing from previous road trip experience just how long Kansas is, we decided to split things up, and the next morning, as we left Denver, we made Salina, Kansas, our day’s goal. First, though, we marveled at the sprawling, warren-like world of the Wonder Tower, in Genoa, Colorado, which beckoned to us from the side of I-70. “See 6 States!” it said, and how can you really argue? What was more impressive were the rooms full of “antiques,” lining tables and cabinets, nailed to the ceiling, blocking the windows, and spilling onto the floor, each and every one ridiculously overpriced. Totally worth the stop, if anyone is thinking of heading out that way.

We continued across eastern Colorado and into Kansas, stopping in Goodland, the home of Giant Van Gogh Easel, as well as Oakley, home to the deprerssing and disappointing Prairie Dog Town, as well as the impressive Buffalo Bill Statue (though the other Buffalo Bill was Bill Comstock, not Bill Hickock as the linked account states).

We spent the night in Salina, full of nice neon signs and a great-looking art house theater that was showing Layer Cake that week – I wish we’d been up for a move that night. The next morning, we tackled the rest of Kansas, including the The Oz Museum in Wamego, and headed into KC itself.

Our first stop was the legendary Arthur Bryant’s, where we dined on way too much delicious barbeque, before heading down the street to the combined complex of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum. We hit the NLBM first, and what a treasure it is – the only thing missing was Buck O’Neil, the museum chairman and baseball legend who has been known to just be there on a normal day. We really enjoyed the museum, and took our time looking around. The jazz museum across the hall was also very interesting, especially the interactive stations, narrated by WGBH’s Eric in the Evening, where we could manipulate the style of recorded instruments in a jazz combo to create different effects. Very cool.

Finished with the museums, we headed to Lee’s Summit to the home of Aimee’s cousin Peter, who, along with his wife Linda, treated us to terrific seats and Stadium Club dinner at Kauffman Stadium for that night’s Royals – Red Sox game. WIth that visit, we’ve now been to every ballpark in the AL Central, the first division we’ve completed. Ten left to go, with the addition of new parks in Philadelphia and D.C., though I’d rather wait until the Nationals have moved out of their temporary home. The game was great fun to watch, though the rain delay sent us home in the eighth, sad to say, where we watched the Red Sox finally go down in the eleventh inning.

The next morning, I had to say goodbye to Aimee at KCI airport, so she could get home for orientation at work, and I headed off towards St Louis. I stopped in Wright City for an enlightening visit to the Elvis Is Alive Museum, and then met up with Tim and Heather for dinner and some Ted Drewes. Man, I loved that concrete.

After a night in St Louis, I took off Friday morning for Chicago, where I hung out with my high-school friend Gavin, whom I hadn’t seen in 12 years. I also spent the evening on a photobooth crawl around Chicago, hitting 20 photobooths that evening and the next morning. After Chicago, it was a relatively easy drive to Toledo, where I spent a night, and then into Rochester Sunday afternoon. It’s amazing how far east Chicago and Cleveland feel when you’ve driven all the way from the Pacific Ocean.

It’s good to be back for good in Rochester, where Aimee has been at work and I’ve been getting as much done as I can while I still have free days: important stuff like bank accounts, insurance, the DMV, and finishing up the new Harry Potter.

Take a look at the photos of the trip for more road trip goodness.