Road Trip/Where's Waldo

[shoota77]

I'll be playing the part of Waldo,
Tomorrow, I'm starting my trek across the U.S. (and Canada) on my way from Boston up home to Anchorage. I'm definitely playing it by ear with no real solid plans and staying with friends at colleges along the way. Tomorrow, I head to D.C. to see family and from there I'll be going to Bloomington, IN then to Chicago, then to Madison, WI. From there, it's kinda dead land (I don't know anyone in colleges around Iowa, Nebraska, Dakotas, but I'll probably eventually end up in Boulder, CO....and from there it's up in the air. Sooo, if you happen to see an Ebony VX with Alaska plates driving by give a honk. I'll try and post occasionally and throw any good stories up on the board. This should be fun, hopefully I'll see some of you out there!

-Lionel

[Raque Thomas]

If you come through ouisville, KY, give me a cal & we'll try to hook up! (502)905-9444. Have a safe trip - sounds like a lot of driving, but quite an adventure!

[AlaskaVX]

Finally coming back? Well if you have any troubles once you get to Alaska give me a call 440-2528. Have a great trip!


FYI- It took me 36 hours (driving time) I think to get from Denver to Vancouver Canada. Visit Blunt Brothers Cafe while your in Vancouver but watch where you park your car on that street (the one Blunt Bro's is on) it's crazy, it's almost a bluegrass festival! 48 hours from Vancouver to Anchorage. And don't forget gas is pretty spendy on the AK highway. Fill up whenever you see a gas station as you don't know when the next one is. When I drove up I came accross a "town" of gas stations and every single one was closed. I had 1/4 tank at that point and continued on to barely make it to the next one. There are plenty of gas stations until you get on the AK highway.

[shoota77]

Thanks for the tips! If I go through Louisville I'll definitely give you a call, R.T. I'm sitting in DC right now. Very uneventful 6 1/2 hours from Beantown...little traffic in NYC but that's it. The weirdest thing I saw was what looked like New York Times headquarters in Jersey. That about sums up the excitement level of the day. Tomorrow off to Indiana U...

[ScottinMA]

Waldo,

How are you posting OTR? Stopping at Starbucks or driving along seeking WIFIs in residential areas??

[mbeach]

Are you driving up the ALcan this time of year? I figured that all of the services would be closed.

[shoota77]

Little check in from the trip so far...I'm sitting right now in a little coffee shop with free wifi in madison, wi. trip has been amazing thus far, lots of fun some places too much . i spotted a VX for about 2 seconds in chicago. in the wrigleyville area kinda by roscoe st. and paulina. no other sightings...also, no problems with the vx. tomorrow i'm off to boulder. says its a 16 hour drive, so we'll see if i make it. im pretty sure ill make it up the alcan with no problems, if i have some it'll just add to the adventure. take care...

[mbeach]

What a great drive!

Last time (well, the only time) that I went up the Alcan, I crossed over in N. Dakota, and went through Regina. I never drove as far west as Colorado.

The wife and I are planning on doing it again, and the VX might be just the right truck for the job.

Have a safe trip!

[shoota77]

Hello again...this time sitting in the Western State College library in Gunnison, Colorado. Well, since the last post there hasn't been too much that happened. I stayed in Wisconsin an extra couple days to get some shots and perscriptions (more on that later). I was parked in a parking garage that had a 48 hour limit so during my trip there i had to pull out and back in a couple times. The lady in the pay booth always said how cool my car was (she was about 70). The last time I left there was a guy in the pay booth with another lady and she told him, "Look! It's your dream car." We talked for a couple minutes about how he always wanted one and had never seen one in person. Always nice. Also, the building manager at my friends apartment saw it and asked if it was a 2005. I said no. Finally, my front right tire was rubbing against the cladding (new Yoko 285/60) and so i took it to a shop to have them trim. None of the guys there had seen it, and my mechanic dude thought it was frontwheel. But, they did it for free and I was on my way. 15 hours or so later i was in Boulder. I skiied a day, now i'm visiting Alaskan friends here and tomorrow I'm off to Montana. Here's where it gets interesting. I'm going to Thailand to do some Tsunami rebuilding and thought I would have enough time to make it to AK. Unfortunately, I wasted time in CHicago and Madison (where i got tetnus/flu/japanese encephylitis shots and typhoid, malaria and travellers diah...diar...dyar...travellers poop pills. (hope i won't have to use that last one) So, i'll be going from montana to seattle, to eugene, to san francisco, and to SLC where I'll park the car with friends and take off to thailand on the 12th. Wow, long post...well, back to finishing my last piece of writing left over from last semester. Thanks for reading.

-Li

[AlaskaVX]

FYI- I heard that gas in Canada is reaching $3.75/gal.
Have fun in Thailand!

[shoota77]

My how things can change when you're having fun! Well, good news all around. I finally made it back to Alaska about 2 weeks ago...6742 miles after I left Boston. No problems with the VX at all! Though gas did reach $1.04 in parts of the Yukon...a litre. Anyway, here's a recap of what happened since the last update...

still going to Thailand, except with a different program and to a different location, saves me more than $1000.00. From Gunnison, I drove to Salt Lake where my father just happened to be in town for business. Got a high quality meal out of him (sushi) and spent the night in a hotel, instead of a friend's couch for the first time in a while. The next day, I drove to Redding, CA where I partied with some friends who I played baseball and football with a couple years back. From there, it was up to Eugene,OR for 2 nights then up to Bellingham, WA for 1. I then made it to Missoula, MT for 2 nights then headed north to Canada. I was going to try to make it to Whitehorse in 2 days, but diverted to Calgary to see what it was like on a Saturday night. From there, I stopped at Prince George, AB...Watson Lake, YT...Glenallen, ALASKA!...and I finally made it home a couple hours later. First stop in Anchorage...Lucky Wishbone! So, that's it...the trip was a lot of fun and I can't wait to drive back down, which looks like will happen in May some time!

-Lionel

p.s.-Some quality comments on my VX along the way. One guy asked if it was a new mercedes and another asked if it was "...one of them new hy-bred thingies?"

[mbeach]

It looks like I'll be doing the same drive in June. Ohio to Alaska.

[shoota77]

Should be a beautiful one! Enjoy it! (oh, and if you need some audiobooks/CDs to pass the time let me know).

[wekilled]

Make sure on the way up you pull over and jump into Liard Hot Springs as you get towards the Yukon Territory. (before Whitehorse) After all that driving you wont regret it. Last time I jumped in it was free and didnt have a huge hotel over it (like it would in the US.)

I just flew up to Anchorage to hit the DMV and get my new plates for my VX. I can't stand the taxes here in Wa. state.

--Doug (ex-Nanook)

[mbeach]

Make sure on the way up you pull over and jump into Liard Hot Springs as you get towards the Yukon Territory. (before Whitehorse) --Doug (ex-Nanook)

I did that in '97, not too long after that woman was eaten by a bear at the Hot Springs. They also have excellent Broccoli soup (at the 'hat' place). That's definately on my list of stops, as well as Muncho Lake (for pictures).

I'm very excited about the drive. The last time I did it (for PCS from Bragg), I spent 6 months getting the truck ready. I drove up in a supercharged and lifted Grand Cherokee on 31" M/Ts. It also only took 4.5 days from Ohio. I dunno if I'm going to go that extreme with the VX.