done.

6,389 miles, four hubcaps, 28 days and 25 states later, I'm home.

Days XX to XXIII

Here's the drive from Danbury, CT to Lincoln, ME.

Danbury, CT to Manville, RI
Started off from Danbury on side roads down to New Haven. Curvy, hilly and fast, it was a really fun drive. Until I got lost in New Haven. Pulled over and spent another hour on the phone with the help desk, but finally got the Blackberry working again. Took off and after a little while on the freeway, got off on Route 1 along the coast of Connecticut. It would have been a nice drive, but it was too crowded. Eight-million people going north for the weekend, I guess. Went through Rhode Island and got stuck in traffic a bunch of times. Finally pulled off for the night in Manville, RI, north of Providence a bit.

Manville, RI to Portland, ME
Another frustrating drive, for the most part. Lots of traffic, several stop-and-go traffic jams. Stayed on the freeway the whole way, except for a little detour through Lowell, MA (Jack Kerouac's birthplace). Got into Portland at a decent hour, but had trouble finding a cheap motel room. Finally ended up forking over a good chunk of change and stayed in a place on the outskirts of town. Did laundry and then caught a cab into the Old Port area of Portland. Got some dinner and did some bar hopping and eventually saw Nick from Family Ties doing a Springsteen tribute at some place (no, it wasn't really him).

I'd decided to stay in Portland a second night just because I needed a break from driving. Ended up staying in a place in Old Port, which was a lot more convenient. Since it was a Sunday night, it was a lot cheaper too. Walked around for a couple hours and then checked into my hotel room, where I took a nap and then walked down to the pier to take a ferry cruise. The ferry cruise was nice. It was a three-hour cruise and we didn't wreck, so I was happy. Grabbed something to eat after that and went to bed early.

Portland, ME to East Orland, ME
Nothing too exciting to report. A really nice drive on Highway 1 up the coast and stayed at a place on a lake in East Orland. An older couple ran the place and it had waterfront access, so I sat outside, drank beer, smoked cigarettes and read my book. I'd meant to use their paddleboat to cruise around the lake a bit, but it got dark before I had a chance.

East Orland, ME to Lincoln, ME
More driving up the coast on Highway 1. It was a really nice drive, but got a lot better after after I passed Acadia National Park. A lot less traffic and a lot less development. About 3:00 this afternoon, I technically began heading home when I took a left on Highway 6 in Topsville, ME and started heading east.

Onto the pictures...

A familiar-sounding bar in Portland, Maine.

The following are shots from the ferry cruise I took in Portland, ME.

This is the view from the dock at the place I stayed in East Orland, Maine.

To be honest, I have no idea where this is. It was on the drive today though.

Pretty nice scenery for a rest area.

These are some pictures taken from the car along the drive from East Orland to Lincoln, Maine.

Days XVII, XVIII and XIX

Did I do nineteen in Roman numerals right? Looks strange.

I think we left off at me getting off the Blue Ridge Parkway and staying in Charlottesville, VA. I've been having trouble sleeping. Well, I sleep fine, it's the falling asleep thing that's been a problem. Since check-out times never change, it started catching up to me and I've had a crappy few days. Nothing terrible, just tired and mix that in with some bad luck and little things getting on my nerves, the days end up being crappy, plus I don't get anything done. Four nights in a row, once I've finished driving for the day, I've just stayed in the motel room for the night. So not a lot to report other than the drives.

Charlottesville, VA to Pocomoke City, MD
Took the freeway most of the way. Not a bad view, considering. Got off on Ocean View Drive or something around Newport News to get to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It was a weird street. Seemed like it was ghetto-ish on one side and fancy seaside condos on the other side. The bridge was nice enough. First time I'd seen the ocean on this trip.

Here's me trying to figure out why the hell my camera won't take a picture on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (it was in video mode, obviously).


Here it is after I figured out it was in video mode. Not all that exciting a shot.


After that, I started looking for a cheap motel. Apparently they're not on the highway, but four miles off the road in the towns on the shore. Finally ended up pissed off enough at Virginia that I decided to gut it out and stay somewhere in Maryland. Took me for-fucking-ever to find a room and it ended up being, by far, the most expensive room of the trip (it wasn't all that expensive, but when you're staying in hotel rooms for 28 days straight, the cost of the rooms start adding up pretty quickly).


Pocomoke City, MD to Reading, PA
Mapped out a convoluted drive on little roads in eastern Maryland before I headed out. Somehow all the road names had two threes in them too. Someone got lost. I was trying to find the Whitehaven Ferry in eastern Maryland. Turns out, I'd missed a turn a few miles back. Before I realized that though, I saw this yard with a few of those fiberglass sculptures of deer. I can't stand those things so I was looking at them with hatred in my eyes as I drove past. The eyes followed me. As I was thinking, "That's weird..." I noticed the heads were following me too. All of a sudden the two fawns took off running (is that what the babies are called? What the hell was Bambi?). All that happened so fast, I actually flinched when they took off.

I'd meant to take a picture every time I got lost on this trip. I've been lost more than twice, but I've only taken two "lost" pictures so far. The reflection of my dashboard messed up the picture, but it's a huge marsh near those fucking deer and the ferry launch.


Here's me on the ferry. Exciting, huh?


That's all the pictures for that day and pretty much all there is to write about, other than spending two hours driving around Reading, PA trying to find a motel. Yeah, they have railroads.

Reading, PA to Danbury, CT
Started out the morning stopping at Office Depot for "supplies" (this will be explained later) and Barnes & Noble to buy a few books. The plan was to go through Scranton and find a "Welcome to Scranton" sign so I could use the poster board and marker I'd bought to add a little something to the sign. Sort of an inside joke. Hopefully the end result would be a picture of a sign that said, "Welcome to Scranton, except for L.S. who can suck it." As it turns out, I spent three hours in Reading sitting in a parking lot on the phone with the help desk trying to get my Blackberry working again. By the time I got to Scranton, it was time for my fantasy football draft, so I found me some wifi and did that. By the time the draft was over, it was too dark for pictures. I did get one picture on the way to the wifi though.

What do cows listen to?


After the draft, I decided to drive through to Danbury, CT to make up some time (I'm generally not driving late into the day). Once I realized where I was going, I sent my brother Ted an e-mail as he used to live in Danbury and I'd heard he was going to be visiting sometime recently, but I wasn't sure when. Alas, he'd gotten back from Danbury a couple weeks ago, but I got a lead on where I can drop his name to get some free coffee as well as a place to spend some time tomorrow.

That's it. The plan for tomorrow is to go through Rhode Island and cross that mother off my list (it'll be my 47th state). It's a short drive, so I'm not sure if I'll stay or keep going towards Maine (which will be my 48th state). I'd like to make up some time so I can stay in one place for two or three days before I have to head back. We'll see what happens.

Day XV and Day XVI

I wanted to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville and take that at least a little ways north. After a little difficulty in getting on it (rather, getting on it at a place where the road wasn't closed ten miles ahead), I had a blast. Some of the most fun driving I've ever done. It's just a little two lane road that winds through the Blue Ridge mountain chain for 400-some miles. All the land on either side of it is owned by National Park Service, so for the most part, it's really pristine, windy and hilly. Er, mountainy. The speed limit is 45 m.p.h., so you can't make very good time on it, but you don't really want to. The road's windy enough that a lot of the time it's tough to even go 45. They also have scenic overlooks ever 5 miles or so, I'd guess. A lot of the overlooks have trails running from them, but as I'm a lazy bastard, I only went on one short hike. The Appalachian Trail runs along it for a little while too, so I got out of the car and walked a bit of that just so I can technically say, "Yeah, I've walked the Appalachian Trail." Real hikers are probably going to lynch me.

I ended up driving on it until it ended 380 miles or so later. Took all of Day XV and Day XVI to do it.

I took a ton of pictures along the way (and a video, but it makes me look like I drive like a grandma) (Hi, mom!), but it was always pretty hazy, so most of them didn't turn out too well.

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These two pictures are from the hike I took on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yay, nature.

This is my proof that I walked the Appalachian Trail. You don't want to know how long it took me to figure out that the logo thing on the sign was an A and a T combined. AT=Appalachian Trail. Clever little fucks.

I was driving along and saw some mountains, so I took a picture. These are those pictures.

I drove a little bit further and then I had lunch. After lunch, I drove some more. I saw some more mountains. So I took another picture. Then I drove some more.

After that, God stopped by for a chat.

Day XIV

First thing, I found a mechanic and got the wheels balanced and the tires rotated. That took care of the vibration and I headed to Asheville, which was only 30 miles away or so. Got lost a few times in Asheville and well outside of it, then back in it, then back outside of it. Eventually found a cheap place to stay and did a little research on what to do in Asheville that night. Almost every Saturday during the summer they have "Shindig on the Green" which starts "along about sundown". It's a bunch of bluegrass bands, cloggers, jug bands and such playing in this park downtown. As each band only gets to play a few songs, little impromptu groups form on the outskirts of the crowd and play out on the outskirts too. It was pretty cool. After that, I walked downtown and checked out the Saturday night scene. Too many college kids for me, but I eventually found a place that only serves fancy beer. It was a huge place and had two floors. Upstairs, you could only get domestic fancy beers and downstairs had imported fancy beers. There were about 25 taps on each floor and hundreds of bottled beers available. After a couple hours there, I stopped being able to taste the beer so I headed back to the motel, but not before stopping at the place across the street from it and seeing yet another bluegrass band for a few songs.

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This is one of the official tents for jamming--sorry, jammin'-- at Shindig on the Green in Asheville. There were also a lot of people jamming in areas outside of the tents because fuckall if Bluegrass musicians are gonna let The Man tell them what to do.

The band at the bar across the street from my motel in Asheville. Well, some of them. And part of the wall. I didn't notice that the picture was blurry at first because this is how I was actually seeing them.

Day XIII

After I checked out, I went to Centennial Park in Nashville and saw the Parthenon. They have a replica of the Parthenon built to scale. Headed to Asheville, NC after that. I almost made it. Stopped for the night in Lake Junaluska, NC. My car had started to act up. It had actually been acting up for a long time, I just hadn't been on a freeway in awhile to notice the problem (steering wheel was vibrating a lot at high speeds). On the way there, I took a detour through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That was a really beautiful drive that emptied out onto Gatlinburg, TN. Downtown Nashville had nothing on this place. The sidewalks and streets were just packed with people going to haunted houses and wax museums and crap like that. In my haste to get out of there, I missed out on Dollywood.

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The Parthenon in Nashville. There's also a huge statue of Athena inside, but my picture didn't turn out.

I drove along this stream during my short dip into Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Day XII

I liked Nashville a lot. I'd found a deal on a nice hotel room the night before that was close to Music Row, which I thought was a good thing. Music Row is just a bunch of office buildings though. Office buildings with history, but office buildings nonetheless. Saw the studios where Elvis, Johnny Cash and some other guy recorded hits. I know I did, because they had big gaudy guitars in front of the buildings that told me so. Before I walked that, though, I checked out downtown. Parked by the symphony place and saw that Ben Folds was playing with the Nashville Symphony (I was really into Ben Folds for awhile there). The rest of it (that I walked, anyway) was too touristy. I'm a tourist and I like a lot of that stuff, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. So I went back to the hotel, had dinner and then did the Music Row walk. When I got back to the hotel, they were setting up for some kind of music in the hotel bar, so I had a couple beers and checked that out. Turned out the lady playing was the daughter of the woman who wrote Brand New Key (can't remember the name at the moment). Don't ask me why, but I love that song.

After that, I headed down to the Station Inn to see a bluegrass band. It was really dead when I got there, but picked up enough by the time the band started. I like bluegrass a lot, but I don't know anything about it. They seemed really good to me though. I'd had a few more beers in me by that time though.

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This is a shot from the North Carolina Welcome Center on the border. I was playing around with the panorama thing on my camera. The colors are dim, but it stitched things together pretty well.

My sister might get a kick out of this picture. My apologies to the rest of you bastards.

My room in Nashville. It's probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. That I've paid for myself, anyway. This site can sometimes get you really cheap rooms, but there's no guarantee you'll get the hotel you want. I was actually trying to stay at a Sheraton, I think.

That's the Heartbreak Hotel guitar. What an awesome-looking office building!