And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper

(Sorry, they never made a movie about Bismarck.)

After another good night's sleep (traveling all day=sleeping like a rock at night), I headed back to downtown Minneapolis for lunch. I had a fantastic pot roast sandwich at The Local, then drove south to see the monument to commercialism that is the Mall of America. I really just wanted to see it and move along, but I did get a quick photo of the famed roller coaster.

And with that it was back onto I-94 to Bismarck with a stop in, yes, Fargo. Taking a suggestion from Newport, I stopped at the Roger Maris Museum, conveniently housed in the West Acres Shopping Mall. As ridiculous as a museum in a mall is, it was a pretty neat shrine, complete with some seats from Yankee Stadium pre-renovation.

I enjoyed a lovely dinner in the food court before getting back on the highway and heading due west to Bismarck. And I mean due west. As in, I barely moved the steering wheel for 200 miles. This stretch also marked the first appearance of a 75 MPH speed limit zone. And now that I have a car that can actually go that fast (how did I drive that station wagon to New Mexico, and without cruise control no less?), it makes for some easy driving.

Tomorrow marks one of the portions of the trip I've been excited about since the beginning - the Black Hills of South Dakota. If all goes as planned, I should see both the Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore. Tomorrow also marks the point in the trip when I'm not sure how reliable my Internet options will be. So if you don't hear from me tomorrow, don't worry, I'm just out communing with nature.

Why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?

Good question Prince. And so it was on to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesota, State No. 44 on this journey. I should mention that I spent a good bit of time in Madison this afternoon, mostly walking State Street and taking pictures of the Capitol. I also had to make a stop at Camp Randall (again with the football) before heading west.

I put my driving shoes on today and made great time from Madison to Minneapolis without really speeding to speak of (I rarely if ever speed much on the highway). Wisconsin is the first state since Tennessee to have any real scenic land to drive across, and the rolling plains dotted with dairy farms were very cool. One interesting landmark on the way was a place called Wisconsin Dells, which can best be described as Myrtle Beach on steroids. It was the ultimate in touristy kitsch, as evidenced by the vast number of amusement parks and other such silliness. Case in point, this Trojan Horse at the entrance to the Mt. Olympus park.

Upon arriving in Minneapolis, I parked near the Mississippi River at a place called Saint Anthony Falls. This is almost the extreme north end of the river and once featured the only waterfall on the Upper Mississippi. The falls have since been covered by a concrete apron and dams installed. Here's the view from just down river on the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Trail.

I finished the walk around the trail, had a quick dinner of fish and chips at Tuggs before heading to my home base for the night at Casey's friend Anne's house. Special thanks to Anne for the fine (and free) accommodations.

Tomorrow we start to get serious. Mall of America, lunch, then on to North Dakota.

Oh, and I know it's been the weekend and all, but don't you love me? No comments? I'm not blogging for my health here.

On Wisconsin!

Saturday would have to qualify as my first lazy day, as I drove only about an hour from Milwaukee to Madison. Two highlights from the day were a tour of Miller Park and seeing State Street in downtown Madison.

Miller Park was as cool as I'd expected, one of the wave of really nice new parks (this one opened on Opening Day 2001) - not as nice as PNC in Pittsburgh but definitely nicer than Citizens Bank in Philly.

The tour was solid (I just walked up at 3 and, lo and behold, the last tour started at 3). I got to sit in Bob Uecker's chair, walk through the visiting dugout and walk out onto the field, pretty much everything you'd want to do on a tour. One thing that stood out was how close the press box was to the field. Here's the view:

After that I made the short drive west to Madison, the state capital and home of the University of Wisconsin. State Street is the main drag down town and features a very cool view of the Capitol Building.

I'm planning to walk around the city and campus a little more today and get some better pictures. After that, it's off to the Twin Cities for the night. The hardcore road-tripping starts soon, these states aren't getting any smaller.

Schlemiel! Schlemazl! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!

(Ed. note: Sorry for the late post today, I had some Internet issues at the hotel.)

So the plan for Friday was to spend the afternoon walking around Chicago, which I have been told is one of the great cities in the country. Well, the weather decided not to cooperate, as a heavy cloud cover and the wind made for very unpleasant walking around conditions.

After a quick lunch in Wrigleyville, I called my first audible of the trip, closing out Chicago early and heading north to Milwaukee (I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't make an Alice Cooper joke, and I'm sticking to my guns).

Naturally I'm going with a "when in Rome" approach for this trip, so I figured what better to do in Milwaukee than tour a brewery. The lateness of my arrival in town left me with but one option, the Lakefront Brewery. While I'm sure the big breweries are great, the Lakefront tour was awesome. It's a small place (they claim to brew as much beer in a year as Miller spills in a shift) but has two awesome features - three fermenting tanks painted to look like the Three Stooges and this...

That, friends, is the original chalet that housed Bernie Brewer at old County Stadium. Needless to say, I am now a lifelong fan of the Lakefront Brewery.

I met some locals (Tim, Ryan and Jennie if memory serves) on the tour, and they let me tag along with them for the rest of the night. We went to their friend Thor's (!) house before hanging out in downtown Milwaukee. It really tells you something about a city when you can meet strangers and go meet their friend Thor.

But now I must continue on, traveling to Madison (perhaps back through Chicago, we'll see how it goes) for the night before getting to the Twin Cities on Sunday. Thanks to anyone who is reading this and for all well-wishes being sent my way.

And special thanks to my new friends for a night in Milwaukee, your hospitality will be remembered fondly.

Tune in next time for "Hail to the victors" or "Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame"

It's been over a thousand miles and I'm titling posts with homages to Rocky and Bullwinkle...let's just say that I shouldn't have this much time alone with my thoughts. Anyway, today I wrapped up my impromptu college football pilgrimage today with visits to Michigan and Notre Dame.

First up was Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, the Big House.

It was raining, and the field was covered in preparation for graduation, but it was pretty awesome. It wasn't nearly as big vertically as I'd imagined a 100,000+ capacity stadium would be, but it wasn't hard to picture that many people in there. It was built in 1927 and felt like it could have looked exactly like it did today way back then. Very cool.

After a cheese steak at Mr. Spot's for lunch, it was off to South Bend. The toll road that runs east to west across northern Indiana (I-80 and I-90, cleverly-named the Indiana Toll Road) was closed due to an accident this morning, so I was forced onto US 20 from Angola into South Bend. It was extremely slow going with all the normal Toll Road traffic on the mostly two-lane road, but I did get to drive through some Amish country around Lagrange. You know you're going slow when you get passed by a horse-drawn buggy. But I digress...

I got an in-depth Notre Dame athletic facility tour from fellow women's hoops SID Chris, highlighted by the ridiculously-nice new football building which features hands down the nicest weight room I have ever seen. Carolina's football weight room is nice, but this place blows it out of the water. I was unable to actually enter Notre Dame Stadium due to construction (glad to know it's not just Chapel Hill), so I decided to walk around campus a bit.

After taking the requisite picture of Touchdown Jesus, I ventured toward the center of campus. With all due respect to Carolina (and UVa for that matter), I can't imagine a place looking more collegiate than Notre Dame. A very intimate, walkable campus with just the right combination of really old buildings and well-landscaped nature. And in the middle of it all, the famed Main Building, which you may recognize...

I made a quick pit stop at the bookstore for my first T-shirt of the trip before heading west toward Lake Michigan. It was still kind of rainy (and newly-foggy) as I got closer to Chicago, so I decided to call it a night in Portage, Ind., before driving into the city tomorrow. There is some clearing in the forecast, so hopefully I can spend most of the day walking around Chicago.

With that, good night from the Central Time Zone. Here's hoping this is the dumbest thing I do on the trip. (What can I say, I couldn't let my dad be the only one to lose money tonight).

I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'

After two perfect mornings in Chapel Hill and Knoxville, the rain has caught up with me in Ann Arbor and looks to be following me to Chicago. Today should take me to South Bend and then on into Chicago.

Scoreboard has been updated.

Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shinin'

When I left this morning, I imagined this post being relatively short with lots of whining about how lame driving through Kentucky and Ohio was. But you deserve better, I deserve better, the blog deserves better. So we'll start you off with this little beauty from Corbin, Ky. Wait for it...

That's right, the birthplace of KFC. In addition to being on the site of the Colonel's original restaurant (the building in the photo is a recreation), there is also a museum and a regular KFC. Not to mention a souvenir stand, complete with Colonel Sanders bobbleheads. I, however, opted for the $0.69 commemorative button. I believe I'll have to give this place an honorary spot on the Lunch List.

After lunch in Corbin, I headed to Cincinnati for dinner at the Montgomery Inn. This place came recommended by (ed.) Casey's roommates Rebecca and The Doctor (instead of the universally-panned Skyline Chili) and lived up to expectations. The "World's Greatest Ribs" were solid, but the highlight was a scoop (actually the size of football) of Graeter's Black Raspberry Chip ice cream. I ate at the Boathouse location, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone dining in the 'Nati.

A little site housekeeping to close...

First, you'll (probably not) notice a slight change to the bobbymap. First, Ohio has been changed from blue to red since I have now driven through it. Second, as I am spending the night in Ann Arbor, Michigan is now red as well. I haven't really done anything but check into the hotel, so Michigan will get some love tomorrow. One last thing is a new feature on the side bar, the Scoreboard. It will list four things from here on out - miles traveled, states visited, tanks of gas purchased and average miles per gallon. I haven't actually included totals yet (because I forgot to look at the odometer when I got out of the car), but I will update that in the morning.

So almost no whining and the Colonel...not too bad if you ask me. Kentucky was really boring though. And the traffic in Lexington sucked.

Ain't no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top

Day one is in the books, and I'm no worse for the wear so far. After a late-afternoon arrival in Knoxville I met up with my first special guest of the trip, my friend Jessica. Her photography class was shooting the Tennessee Smokies game, so naturally I tagged along. It had been a long time since I was the one wearing a media credential instead of issuing one.


As you can see, plenty of good seats were still available at cleverly-named Smokies Park, but it was a perfect night for baseball. The home team lost to Mobile 6-1, but we did get the highlight of Harry Caray sound bytes on the PA throughout (Tennessee is a Cubs affiliate), including the classic, "That would have been a home run in a phone booth!"

Today I'm off to Ann Arbor with a stop in lovely Cincinnati. So I bid farewell to Jessica and the awesome Gizmo the Jack Russell and head north on I-75.

Might as well begin at the beginning

So today is the day, Day 1, Durham to Knoxville. Should be a pretty nice drive, 342 miles according to Google Maps, and I'll be taking in my first baseball game of the trip tonight, Tennessee Smokies hosting the Mobile Bay Bears.

Below you'll see home base here in Durham as well as my companion on the trip, my 1997 Toyota Camry. And with that, I'm off.

Past Travels

Regrettably, I have almost no good pictures to speak of from my two biggest road trips to date - New Mexico and Montreal. I visited close to half of the states I've gotten so far for the first time on those two trips, but because they occurred in the pre-digital camera age (for me, at least) there is little in the way of photographic evidence. A quick scan of what I have from the Montreal trip (I literally have nothing from the New Mexico trip) shows these as the best of the bunch:

This is the Chatham Light on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. We made a pit stop in Chatham en route to Montreal to see my friend Daniel pitch in the Cape Cod Baseball League. A little out of the way, but most certainly worth the trip.

This is Lake Champlain on the border of New York and Vermont from the Burlington, Vt., side. Burlington has always fascinated me because it was always listed just above Chapel Hill on the "Top Cities That Have It All" list. I only spent an afternoon there, but I can't wait to go back and get a better idea of whether it really has it all.

So there they are, the best two pictures from my trip to Montreal, neither of which involve Montreal (or even Canada for that matter). But I promise to do better this time, dear readers. Need proof? Here are my "digital camera era" travel photos, including my most recent road trip to Pennsylvania.

Enjoy!

Lord, I was born a Ramblin' Man

So we're getting close to go time here at the Drive for 5-0, and I thought it would be good to compile a list of cities I plan to visit along the way. Again, lots of feedback is encouraged - let me know if there are cities listed that I should avoid or places omitted that should not be missed.

• Knoxville, Tenn.
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Chicago, Ill.
• Milwaukee, Wis.
• Madison, Wis.
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
• Fargo, N.D.
• Bismarck, N.D.
• Pierre, S.D.
• Rapid City, S.D.
• Billings, Mont.
• Missoula, Mont.
• Coeur D'Alene, Idaho
• Seattle, Wash.
• Vancouver, B.C.
• Portland, Ore.
• Boise, Idaho
• Laramie, Wyo.
• Lincoln, Neb.
• Kansas City, Mo.
• St. Louis, Mo.
• Nashville, Tenn.

Wow, that seems a lot more daunting than I'd expected.

Coming later...highlights/photos of past travel.