| Cross border shoppin' |
[May. 16th, 2006|05:23 pm] |
It's been almost 2 weeks since I took a road trip to Pittsburgh. I went to go and pick up some equipment from a friend. First, I got news from him that he wouldn't be home, but he hid a key under his grill. I left just after 9pm on Thursday May 4th. I got to his place a few minutes after 2am, but I spent about 4 minutes looking for his place on the street. I remembered what it looked like, but couldn't find his place. So I went by address and found it. I knew he had a silver BMW with a soft top. I saw a blue one across the street and no other Bimmer around. So I went to it and reached under to look for the key under the grill. Eventually I had to look right under to see hwo to get at the key but it was nothing but steel. No access to the grill area at all. I was too tired to figure out he meant the BBQ grill on his porch. I regreted having him email me the location of the key versus telling me on the phone. So I slept in my car.
A long time ago (60s) my dad visited a friend in Pittsburgh. His friend used to worry if he knew my dad was on his way and was stressed until he arrived. My dad came up with the idea of keeping a key and not notifying his friend when he would be visiting and just show up and let himself in if his friend wasn't home. One tie he decided to drive there after work. He probably got there around midnight. He let himself in and slept on the couch. The next morning, a policeman roused him from his slumber. His friend didn't tell him he moved out and so this family walked into the living room to find a man they didn't know sleeping on their couch.
So, it would have been nice to have found the key and crashed on the couch, recreating history. But I slept OK in the back seat of my Caddie. Before settling in, I used an empty water bottle. I took off my shoes, loosened my pants and reclined the seat as far back as it went. But it didn't take long to realize it wouldn't be as comfortable as laying down in the back seat, so I crawled back and took a snooze. I probably woke up every half hour to turn over and get some circulation. I probably had seatbelt latch marks on my lower back.
At around 8:30am I woke up and drank some water and used another empty water bottle. I decided not to call my friend and let him sleep. So I went to FedEx to pick up the last item which couldn't be delivered since my friend had to leave town. The lady at FedEx immediately told me I wasn't the person who was on the computer. My cousin had put my friend as the billing AND delivery address. Luckily I knew this and called FedEx and added my name. I told her to check because "my friend" had added my name so I could pick it up for him. She scrolled through a few screens and found my name on the last page. Bingo.
Headed back to my friend's place and called him. Found the key, let myself in and grabbed the other stuff. I managed to pack the computer, monitor and 2 rims in the trunk and the other two rims in the cabin. I was all packed and ready to head home by about 10:15am. But I needed to find an internet place to print out the invoices. Stupidly, I thought there would be paper invoices with the shipped goods. After 6 bucks in parking and 5 bucks on internet and printing, I was back on the road home.
The border was a sinch. I declared everything and got taxed on just the products, not on shipping or tax incurred. And the dollar was at an all time high so I didn't pay as much tax as I expected. Overall I saved about 2 grand after gas. I highly recommend Lewiston as the bridge to cross. I waited 5 minutes going into the states and about 3 minutes on the way back (not including the stop to go in and pay which took another 25 minutes). And when you cross the border, you're only an hour away from home.
Overall, I loved the experience. To Pittsburgh and back in 20 hours was trippy. It was interesting leaving late and arriving later. I can see myself going to Montreal after work Friday nights and staying at my cousin's place. FUN!
Oh, and the computer (Macintosh Quad) is AWESOME!!! |
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| Gas guzzler |
[Feb. 10th, 2006|03:14 am] |
$520 Canadian in gas. Not bad for a 6500 km trip in a 5.7 liter car. I thought it would be more so I'm happy! Sweet as hell that it takes regular gas!
On a side note, turns out I don't know how to spell Asphalt. Damn!!! Might bite the bullet and change the name but I think I have to get a paid account. Might not be such a bad idea if I can customize the journal on top of that. =o) |
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| Home bound |
[Feb. 7th, 2006|11:07 pm] |
I left Pittsburgh and the Radio was full of parade information and speculation of depression because they'd be without football for a while.
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| Steeler sandwich |
[Feb. 6th, 2006|09:13 am] |
I had only eaten at one other restaurant from my Roadfood which was Kaelin's for the cheeseburger. Fred and Joey took me to Primanti Brothers for a lunch sandwich. Fred and I were so hungry we got a small bowl of chili as well. I had a Dr. Pepper since I didn't have one in Memphis (Elvis Presley's favourite pop). I got the Cheese steak. All their sandwiches come topped with Coleslaw and french fries in the sandwich. Fred and I added hot sauce from the bottle on the table. It was a hefty sandwich.
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| Touchdown |
[Feb. 5th, 2006|11:07 pm] |
What a way to end my road trip. Watching the XL Superbowl in Pittsburgh!!! And then they won!!! We went for a walk in the morning and I bought a case of Red Stripe for the party. Fred allowed an acquaintance to smoke cigars. Little did he know that the guy was going to chain-smoke those cigars while his girlfriend smoked cigarettes and an occasional cigar too. Joey, one of Fred's friends I hadn't seen in about 14 years, made some chili with "loose sausage" meat. It was very very good!!! I hate a bowl after pigging out on nachos and eating a ton of Swiss Fondue which I made for Fred. It wasn't very thick which is how I like it, but Fred mentioned afterwards that he would have preferred it thicker. I find you end up with too much cheese on the bred when it's thick. Ahh well, I'll make it thicker next time.
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| The long haul |
[Feb. 4th, 2006|09:04 am] |
I got to Graceland at 8:45am but it didn't open till 10am. I grabbed a few souvenirs from the place across the street, took a few pics by the sign and the Graceland mansion and took off. The tour, if I started at 10, would mean I wouldn't leave till 11am give or take. And I wanted to get to Pittsburgh by a reasonable hour. Leaving at 9:30am I was due to arrive by 10:56pm. In the end, I only hit a few flurries. I played WKRP in Cincinnati when I hit Cincinnati on the CD player but otherwise listening to my Road trip Mix with my new Belkin iTrip-type device.
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| South to South |
[Feb. 3rd, 2006|11:07 pm] |
It's hard to believe we had done so much in 7 days. We had left only 5 days prior and I had arrived in California and bought a car just a week before. It's crazy! I'm glad I still have the energy to drive such long distances and racking up miles doesn't bother me. I can drive all day, day after day, for a week and probably more and I'm alright. If I did less driving per day that we did and spent more time in each place or made more stops, I could probably go on for months!!!
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| Ranching Cadillacs |
[Feb. 3rd, 2006|11:07 pm] |
In the morning, I took advantage of the free long distance faxing and sent US Customs a copy of the Title for export. Wen that was done, we made our way To Amarillo. Around lunchtime we hit the border and decided to have Blake’s Lotaburger again. It was awesome and even better this time. I preferred the Cherry Shake over the Black Raspberry but I got green chili on the burger which was awesome.
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| Groundhog day at the Grand Canyon |
[Feb. 2nd, 2006|11:07 pm] |
So we were on our way to Grand Canyon by 5:30 in the morning. I filled up with gas and the person at the pump before me filled up with $3.27 worth of gas. Hi Bub! We made it there for sunrise which was good and bad. It was very cold, but very beautiful. When we first arrived we used the MSG (Mark’s initials) system instead of the GPS system. We turned down this one road but decided to turn around and take another pass. So I pulled over to this wider parking area and BAM! GRAND CANYON was RIGHT THERE! I couldn’t help but swear. “Oh fuck man!” As much as I’ve seen pictures and movies, nothing could have prepared me for how truly awesome the Grand Canyon really was. We were blown away and just satthere in the car awed and swearing. Mark was laughing because of my non-stop cursing. He kept saying “I know! I know!” when I was describing how fucking amazing it was. We finally got out of the car and I took a few pics. Then we went to where we decided to hike. Parked the car and I spent some time looking for my hat.
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| Breakfast at Tiffany's Denny's |
[Feb. 1st, 2006|11:07 pm] |
We hit the hay and were up pretty early again. I got a text message from Chantel and after we packed, we went to their apartment. Chantel met us on the road since it was way down the strip and we thought we might have missed it. We parked my car which Chantel liked, and went up to their pad. Chantel introduced us to Dana who immediately commented that Mark and I were dressed the same. Sure enough, we both wore jeans and burgundy shirts. Apparently they had matching outfits too and decided not to wear them but since we were, they changed their mind, so Dana put on the matching cowboy boots and similar brown top and jean miniskirt as Chantel. They both looked amazing in their matching outfits! I talked with Dana while she finished off her packing and Mark and Chantel hung out in the living room. We helped them take their stuff to their car and when I smiled at the pink bag I was carrying with little DDs all over it (for Dana) I had to explain my amusement. It was a pretty hot bag. After seeing all the clothes being packed and the way they were dressed I wondered if we should go to L.A. instead! I think I saw hot pants!
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| Death and Vegas |
[Jan. 30th, 2006|11:07 pm] |
We were up pretty early and off like a shot to Death Valley. It was pretty spectacular. We had driven in just a little bit and decided to stop. As soon as we got out, it was the polar opposite from the night before. Dead silence. It was eerily quiet. Mark said “Dude, listen how quiet it is.” We started laughing because it was so strange. He hiked up the side of the hill while I took pictures. He was far enough away that I couldn’t spot him, yet when I finally did and spoke to him, allI had to do was speak a little louder than normal and my voice would travel. Again we started laughing at how strange it was to be so far from each other yet being able to speak normally and hear each other. We stopped a few more times before getting to the visitor center. Mark organized some rocks in our initials which I thought was really cool. The tripod I bought before the trip paid for itself this one trip. We used it ALL THE TIME.
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| California Dreamin' Drivin'! |
[Jan. 29th, 2006|11:07 pm] |
I woke up pretty early, right before my alarm. Cathy said she would walk me to the parking lot, but I knew how to get there and I could hoof it alone much more quickly and get an earlier start with Mark. We had a long day ahead of us. I got to the car well before the 8am deadline. My car clock read 8:32 (daylight savings wasn’t adjusted I guess) which meant 7:32, my dad’s birthday. Hey Bub! I stopped at the grocery store and bought muffins for breakfast. We were off on the road after a fill up with gas and when we hit the California coast, we stopped and took our first on the road shot. I realized too late we never went to see the manuscript On the Road. I’ll have to go see it in Chicago, maybe before my Route 66 road trip. The roads along the coast were awesome. Very windy around Big Sur, which was breathtaking. It was a lot like a roller coaster some of the time, so I really had to keep my eyes on the road. The music we played was a CD I had with old TV show theme songs. We got stumped on “Who’s the Boss” and “Siskel and Ebert”, songs we knew we knew but couldn’t figure out. Mark finally got them both and with a little help and more thinking, I got them too. It was good that we didn’t have the CD sleeve because we might have given up. But we got it in time.
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| A day in Rice-A-Roni town! |
[Jan. 28th, 2006|11:07 pm] |
I woke up at 5:30am Saturday morning or 8:30am Toronto time. I think I was still on Toronto time. That’s when I wrote my novel about the first day of my trip. Then slept another hour and Cathy took us on a tour of the city before meeting my cousin at the Fisherman’s Wharf area. I wanted to have the Boudin’s Clam Chowder in a bread bowl that they apprent;y made famous. First we went to Lombard Street. When I turned onto it there was a Trolly which stopped to take a look at it. I stopped my car, looked at the passengers and waved. Then I just smiled and posed with thumbs up and a look-at-my-car smile. I stopped halfway down, ran out and took a picture of the car then back when I saw other cars were coming. It was kinda misty and later it would rain for most of the day, but not so hard you couldn’t walk around without an umbrella. We drove everywhere! I took lots of pictures of the car in a bunch of places.
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| Cruisin' asphault in style! |
[Jan. 27th, 2006|11:27 pm] |
I was packed and in bed by 2:30am and in an Airport Limo to the airport at 6:30am. I handled the lack of sleep by chatting up the driver. I learned that he works six 12 hour shifts a week. I asked him why he kills himself and his reason was that he needed the money. I thought perhaps he had just arrived in Canada but he had been here 7 years already. I was happy to hear that he was going to his native India with his wife and 4 year-old daughter for 4 weeks. The guy clearly needed a break. I gave him $40 even for the ride to the airport. I was his first customer and he was 2 hours late for his shift. My dad was a new immigrant to Canada once upon a time, and I think like him, I have a soft spot for others who come to this country and struggle to make a life for themselves so far from their native land. No doubt the $10 tip I gave him was returned in the form of good karma...
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