Thursday, September 22, 2011

Trip Advice

I'm going to be driving a truck from Los Angeles to Toronto for a friend from November 6 through 13.

Any route advice? Off the top of my head I'd think staying south until crossing the Mississipi is what I'd do and then head north...

27 comments:

Hamish Mack said...

Follow the bouncing Granny

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Wow. What a journey. I like the west, meself. Like Montana, Wyoming, and such as.
~

mikey said...

Yeah. Unless you've got a compelling reason to take the 10 and 20 to Dallas and turn north their, just take 15 to vegas and what the hell is it, 44 I think to Denver, then just roll east forever on 80 or 70, whichever you prefer. 80's usually better maintained, but you'll see more interesting shit on 70.

Either way, early November's early enough you don't have to worry about horrific weather delays...

Substance McGravitas said...

What would the knock on I-40 be?

Substance McGravitas said...

Oh and Mikey I got an email from you about the downloading issue.

Same tags and same style of URL in this two-year-old post, for which I remember no complaints at the time...

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

I'm going to be driving a truck from Los Angeles to Toronto for a friend

Damn. You're a good friend.

Wait. Are you one of those people who actually WILL help people move?

Substance McGravitas said...

I like driving, I like America, I'm getting my flights paid for somehow. Win win and win. It's no favour on my part and I am accordingly grateful.

Smut Clyde said...

Any route advice?

Parsnips are vastly underrated.
W/v = "carksubb" which sounds vaguely menacing.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

if you swing through Springfield Illinois, you can get a tour through Wright's Dana-Thomas house, which is an amusing folly.

mikey said...

What would the knock on I-40 be?

I haven't spent many miles on it - just mostly for trips to Raton (you actually DO take a left at Albuquerque), but it's a wide trucker's road, like 80, so it would work fine.

My thinking would be I wanted to go NORTHeast, not SOUTHeast, but the difference in miles isn't that huge if you wanted to see that part of the country.

mikey said...

All I can tell you is that the House of Substance is the ONLY site that triggers that alert in Chrome, and it does it every single time...

Substance McGravitas said...

What's interesting about the alert is that it's a Google circle-jerk: all the files are hosted on Google sites and the tags are not exotic in the least.

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

Win win and win. It's no favour on my part and I am accordingly grateful.


Awesome, then!

M. Bouffant said...

Aren't snowbirds supposed to go the other way for the winter?

Do you want to tourist about, or just get it over w/ as quickly as possible?

Not certain, but have a vague recollection there may be construction on the 15, which could be delaying. A heavily-laden truck might call for avoiding mountain ranges at their highest; i.e., sticking w/ the 10 as long as possible.

Is there no Canuckian Auto. Assoc. to give you a map & high-light the best route on it?

Help.

Checked the two-yr. old post, same thing. Must be an "improvement" in Chrome. Maybe it's because it's all Gurgle product.

P.S.: Sorry, can't pick you up at LAX. I'm sleeping in or something.

Substance McGravitas said...

Not sure if we're just gonna step on it and go or what. There is some more consulting to be done and we shall see. Need any maple syrup for the ol' choppers?

J— said...

A heavily-laden truck might call for avoiding mountain ranges at their highest

How big is the truck? Will it have mudflaps? A hula dancer on the dash?

15 to vegas and what the hell is it, 44 I think to Denver

Going the other way (E to W) about 12 years ago, I stopped in Bryce, Zion, and Grand Staircase (thank ye for Escalante, President Clinton) and have been wanting to go back ever since.

Rachel said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Substance McGravitas said...

Sounds a little like New Mexico. Sunset from the overlook out to the plains at Carlsbad Caverns is just endless flats disappearing into a humid purple haze.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Have you been to Carlsbad Caverns? I can't say enough for them. I don't know how much time you have, but Big Bend National Park in Texas is breathtaking.

If you swing through Springfield Illinois, you can get a tour through Wright's Dana-Thomas house, which is an amusing folly.

Bartlesville, Oklahoma, also has a Wright building. The best thing about Springfield is that the local radio station advertises itself as, "The station that rocks the Land of Lincoln!!!"

If you haven't visited St Louis, the Gateway Arch is pretty trippy.

Julie said...

There's a lot of construction going on in Tulsa on I-44 but it's not too bad, there are always at least two lanes open. I drive it to work every day--just avoid it during rush hours 7-8:30ish am, 4-6pm. If you take I-40 all the way to Arkansas that puts you pretty far south for where you're going. I-44 is a toll road, though.

Substance McGravitas said...

Oh geez, forgot about tolls. It's uncivilized, I tells ya.

Thanks for the Gateway reminder...always wanted to see that. Was it Snag or the zombie who had a pic of it?

Substance McGravitas said...

Big Bend looks cool. My memories of Texas go hand in hand with taking too many pills so I didn't like it much except for Austin. I remember El Paso as the asshole of the state.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Thanks for the Gateway reminder...always wanted to see that. Was it Snag or the zombie who had a pic of it?

I think I had one at the Dedblog when I went to the FIRST Championships.

Agree with Bastard on the arch. It looks positively surreal as you walk up to, like a not-fully-convincing P-shop; until you put your hand on the cool stainless.

And the trip to the top is...well, trippy.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...


Bartlesville, Oklahoma, also has a Wright building.


The Price Tower is one of the few I haven't visited.

A beautiful building, it was a notable failure programmatically, functionally, and economically.

Substance McGravitas said...

I think I had one at the Dedblog when I went to the FIRST Championships.

Yes, that was it. I think I first understood that it existed from a Superman comic and I was like what the hell? Can this be true?

Looks like it's along I-70 then...no Oklahoma on 70.

I don't have a good picture of how much I can do yet while fucking around. On my own I've driven from here straight to San Francisco...and other trips had planned stops.

M. Bouffant said...

Could indeed use some maple syrup. For pancakes.

El Paso.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Check out the meteor crater in Arizona- Death Valley is also awesome- hiking to the salt flats at the bottom of Badwater Basin (280-odd feet below sea level) is incredible.