The Green Warehouse
Roadtrip 2004

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Date Posted:
Thu May 20th, 2004 3:29 pm
Location:
N 41° 33' 36.00"
W 87° 16' 48.00"
Miles: 0
 This will be the origin of my trip. Please check back after May 28th, and see the progression of my trip. The map will display white dots from all the points that I've checked in from, and a larger white 'target' symbol where I last checked in from. The link at the top and bottom of the page will take you to a seperate webpage where you can see the pictures that I've shared from my new Sprint camera-phone.

I'll be on the road for 2 weeks, and I'm making a big loop all around the western portion of the United States. With a little luck, my friend Ben will be acompanying me.
I expect to be behind the wheel for a total of 98 hours over the two week period.
Oh, and don't expect very long posts here from now on. I'm typing this one on a real keyboard. From here on out, they'll be typed on a tiny phone!
See ya when I get back!
Dave
Date Posted:
Fri May 28th, 2004 11:16 am
Location:
N 40° 46' 0.00"
W 87° 27' 0.00"
Miles: 59
 I'm here at work. In about 4 hours, I'll be on the road to Christopher, IL. I packed the truck in a rush this morning. It only took about 45 minutes. I hope I didn't forget anything!
Date Posted:
Fri May 28th, 2004 2:50 pm 		My vacation starts in T minus 40 minutes!
Date Posted:
Fri May 28th, 2004 3:53 pm
Location:
N 40° 46' 6.70"
W 87° 26' 18.50"
Gas (midgrade): $2.10
Miles: 61
 First post from the phone!
Date Posted:
Fri May 28th, 2004 8:02 pm
Location:
N 37° 59' 50.70"
W 88° 56' 16.50"
Gas (midgrade): $2.06
Miles: 305
 Almost to dad's house. Wind is at my back. Great gas milage so far!
Date Posted:
Fri May 28th, 2004 9:51 pm 		Made it to Dad's place. Got to see Regan and her family. My nephew Matt is so cute! He's really starting to talk a lot now! "Whassat? Whassat? Whass inere?" He's adoreable! As soon as I get Sprint coverage again, I'll upload the pictures!

Laters!
Date Posted:
Sat May 29th, 2004 9:19 pm 		Went to breakfast this morning with my Dad, Regan, Dave (her husband), Little Matt and Brittany. Got to visit with Howard, Betty and Julie Isom. Then went to a big ass barbeque at Terry Dees place. (They're all related. You'd be amazed at how many people down here are related to me in some fasion or another!)

I made some modifications to the Jeep today too. The power inverter is now wired into the battery so I'll be able to run my navigation system (IBM Thinkpad, Delorme Street Atlas 2003, and Garmin GPS) for the rest of the trip. That'll make finding my way across the country much easier! I don't even have any idea what roads I'm going to take. It's all in the hands of the laptop now!

Early tomorrow morning I'm taking off for Amarillo, Texas. I actually bought sun block today! (I think that's the first time ever for me!) If there's one thing that I learned last time, it's that no matter how tan my arm is, it's going to burn if it's in the sun for 12 hours!

Next update will be from the road tomorrow morning... probably somewhere in Missouri.

Dave
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 9:33 am
Location:
N 38° 00' 0.00"
W 88° 56' 0.00"
Miles: 361
 So much for an early start this morning. Spent a couple hours fixing the GPS cable. On my way to St. Louis.
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 11:45 am
Location:
N 38° 13' 14.00"
W 91° 09' 36.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.00
Miles: 493
 Wind and hills, wind and hills...
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 2:04 pm
Location:
N 37° 15' 18.00"
W 93° 15' 55.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.02
Miles: 640
 The wind is blowing the wrong fucking way! Blowing so hard it folded my mirrors in!
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 3:43 pm
Miles: 746
 Safety Dance!
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 5:55 pm
Location:
N 35° 45' 8.00"
W 96° 41' 25.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.02
Miles: 872
 Smooth sailing! Time for dinner. Road trip diet is in full swing. I should make Amarillo by early evening.
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 6:19 pm 		Mother should I trust the government?
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 7:09 pm
Location:
N 35° 36' 36.00"
W 97° 40' 17.00"
Miles: 929
 Just tried to put out a car fire. My extinguisher just wasn't enough. Looks like I'll have to buy a bigger one next time. Sorry I couldn't put it out in time.
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 9:34 pm
Location:
N 35° 13' 40.00"
W 100° 09' 48.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.08
Miles: 1088
 Ok, so I exaggerated a little. I'll make Amarillo by 11:30. I may even push a little farther tonight if I feel up to it.
Date Posted:
Sun May 30th, 2004 11:45 pm
Location:
N 35° 11' 39.00"
W 101° 48' 6.00"
Miles: 1183
 Down for the night. Time to kick back and get some rest. I've still got to traverse 2 big states tomorrow.
Date Posted:
Mon May 31st, 2004 8:12 am
Gas (midgrade): $2.06
 On the road again!
Date Posted:
Mon May 31st, 2004 10:53 am
Location:
N 34° 56' 42.00"
W 104° 38' 27.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.10
Miles: 1352
 I've never had to piss so bad in my life! I absolutely love the scenery in New Mexico. The southwest in general is just amazing. I got off to a late start, so I may have to skip the Grand Canyon. We'll see.
Date Posted:
Mon May 31st, 2004 2:49 pm
Location:
N 35° 26' 54.00"
W 108° 22' 9.00"
Miles: 1587
 I am at war with the wind. My only weapon is 4th gear. New Mexico has been a bitch but I'm still making good time at the expense of my gas mileage.
Date Posted:
Mon May 31st, 2004 4:11 pm
Location:
N 35° 07' 42.00"
W 109° 32' 29.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.21
Miles: 1664
 The highway is littered with signs for indian trinket shops. It's disgusting how they've whored themselves out to the tourism industry.
Date Posted:
Mon May 31st, 2004 8:23 pm
Location:
N 35° 10' 19.00"
W 113° 47' 50.00"
Miles: 1925
 Pretty bad cellular coverage up to now. Should make Vegas before 8:30 PDT - 10:30 CDT
Date Posted:
Mon May 31st, 2004 10:32 pm
Location:
N 36° 01' 28.00"
W 114° 57' 49.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.43
Miles: 2034
 I'm in Vegas! I managed to get over the Hoover Dam without being mistaken for a terrorist. Now where did I put Trishanne and Tim?
Date Posted:
Tue June 1st, 2004 12:28 am 		I found them! They moved out of Henderson and didn't tell me! That's ok, though... my trusty GPS and computer navigation system told me how to get there! Time to relax and quit driving around for a while! Wish me luck at the casinos!

-Dave
Date Posted:
Tue June 1st, 2004 11:07 am 		Just got word from Ben. Looks like he's not going to be able to meet up with me in LA.

The weather here is beautiful! Clear blue skies, and such a comfortable warmth! (of course it is only 9am here! We'll see how comfortable it is at 1pm!)
Date Posted:
Wed June 2nd, 2004 4:37 pm 		I'm going to walk the strip tonight and see what this casino biz is all about. Then it's up early tomorrow morning to drive to Burbank, CA.
Date Posted:
Wed June 2nd, 2004 11:11 pm 		I WON FIVE DOLLARS AT A BLACKJACK TABLE!
Date Posted:
Thu June 3rd, 2004 8:18 am 		On the road again! Bound for Burbank, California!
Date Posted:
Thu June 3rd, 2004 10:07 am
Location:
N 35° 22' 34.00"
W 115° 53' 2.00"
Miles: 2131
 I feel oppressed already!
Date Posted:
Thu June 3rd, 2004 12:02 pm
Location:
N 34° 31' 12.00"
W 117° 19' 1.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.48
Miles: 2239
 Shit! I left my cigars in Vegas. Damn gas is expensive out here!
Date Posted:
Thu June 3rd, 2004 12:49 pm
Miles: 2287
 It's been a few days since I've smelled moisture in the air!
Date Posted:
Thu June 3rd, 2004 7:12 pm
Location:
N 34° 04' 26.00"
W 118° 28' 3.00"
Miles: 2354
 Just left jason's place. We figure its been 15 years since we've seen each other. That was pretty damn cool. Now I'm stuck in traffic on the San Diego freeway.
Date Posted:
Thu June 3rd, 2004 11:49 pm 		Stopped in Santa Monica to see my cousin Faron and his family. Now I'm heading north to Washington. I'm slated to arrive there late tomorrow.
Date Posted:
Fri June 4th, 2004 1:45 am
Location:
N 35° 21' 12.00"
W 119° 19' 52.00"
Miles: 2476
 Time to give up for the night. It's been an exciting day. I feel like I'm on a reunion tour of the US! Lots of miles left ahead.
Date Posted:
Fri June 4th, 2004 10:53 am
Gas (midgrade): $2.74
 Back in action!
Date Posted:
Fri June 4th, 2004 1:32 pm
Location:
N 37° 06' 45.00"
W 121° 01' 1.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.33
Miles: 2631
 The weather out here is awesome! Only 860 miles to Sean's place.
Date Posted:
Fri June 4th, 2004 4:21 pm
Location:
N 39° 11' 57.00"
W 122° 10' 43.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.47
Miles: 2807
 I-5 is like the Energizer Bunny...
Date Posted:
Fri June 4th, 2004 8:24 pm
Location:
N 42° 11' 32.00"
W 122° 40' 33.00"
Miles: 3040
 You can't pump your own gas in Oregon. How retarded is that? I wonder if they expected a tip. Here's a tip for them: lobby your congressman to let ordinary people operate complex machines like gas pumps.
Date Posted:
Sat June 5th, 2004 12:25 am
Location:
N 44° 57' 28.00"
W 122° 59' 24.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.40
Miles: 3283
 This stupid gas pump thing still irritates me. Getting a little tired. Coffee time! Not much farther.
Date Posted:
Sat June 5th, 2004 1:04 am
Miles: 3320
 People in Portland can't quite figure out how to negotiate a construction zone. No wonder they're not allowed to pump their own gas!
Date Posted:
Sat June 5th, 2004 2:00 am
Miles: 3380
 I love caffeine!
Date Posted:
Sat June 5th, 2004 4:16 am
Location:
N 47° 37' 49.00"
W 122° 42' 31.00"
Miles: 3502
 Safe and sound in Bremerton.
Date Posted:
Mon June 7th, 2004 2:22 am 		Yesterday, we went to Sean's friend's place to watch some shitty B rated horror movies. One was about killer watermelons that ate people's ankles. The other was about tits. I don't know what the rest of the move was about, but the director finally got the idea: if you don't have a good movie, put in lots of tits and it'll wont matter that your story sucks ass.

Sean and I spent most of today playing guitars. We went and jammed with his buddy Greg in the early afternoon, then jammed with his friends Jamie and Terry after that. It's been a while since I've played guitar for 7 hours straight! It was hella cool to jam with a full compliment again! It sure beats being at home playing with myself! (feel free to take that any way you like!)
Date Posted:
Tue June 8th, 2004 12:11 am 		I'm standing atop the Seattle Space Needle!
Date Posted:
Tue June 8th, 2004 5:56 am 		Today we hit a lot of the sights in Seattle. I had to hit the observation deck of the Seattle Space Needle, and then subsequently drop a load of cash in their gift shop. Oh, and lets not forget the Starbucks at the top of the Needle! I had to have some, just to say that I drank a $4 coffee at the Needle.

Then we went to Dicks to grab a burger. Apparently, this is the Seattle hot spot for late night grub. Lots of bums and weirdos hanging out there too! The scenery was interesting, as we sat on the tailgate and chowed down.

I also got to pick the nose of a giant troll and give a concrete man bunny ears. We took a bunch of pics with Sean's camera. Those pics can be found here:
http://www.isomtech.com/images/roadtrip2004/

Laters!
-Dave
Date Posted:
Tue June 8th, 2004 4:10 pm 		Sean and I are going to see Mount St. Helens today. The weather finally cleared, so we should get a pretty good view of the mountain, and all that it destroyed!
Date Posted:
Wed June 9th, 2004 3:09 am 		We hit Mount St. Helens today. All I can say is... WOW! The weather was looking pretty grim, but it made for some unique views of the volcano. Plus, since no one was around, Sean and I drove the Jeep right up onto the sidewalk and on up to the observation area! I've got some great pictures from there. I've added them to the collection at:
http://www.isomtech.com/images/roadtrip2004/

I'm going to pack up and leave from Washington tonight. That'll give me a head start on tomorrow's driving, and I'll actually have time to relax at my destination hotel instead of arriving and going straight to sleep! So it's back to the road I go, and coffee time isn't far behind!

-Dave
Date Posted:
Wed June 9th, 2004 6:56 am
Location:
N 47° 11' 36.00"
W 120° 59' 56.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.35
Miles: 3984
 The sun is just starting to peek above the Cascade Mountains. I haven't even needed any coffee yet! Smooth sailing so far.
Date Posted:
Wed June 9th, 2004 10:04 am
Location:
N 47° 35' 54.00"
W 117° 32' 11.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.30
Miles: 4177
 This gas station looked as though the coffee might contain more than my recommended daily allowance of filth. I'll stick to pre.packaged goods. We'll see if this frappuccino shit does the trick.
Date Posted:
Thu June 10th, 2004 1:15 pm
Location:
N 46° 52' 52.00"
W 99° 14' 24.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.03
Miles: 5218
 Holy shit yesterday sucked! Montana was beautiful for the first 3 hours. During the 12 hours that followed, I changed my opinion. The wind was hellacious, and Sprint's cellular coverage is non existent. I haven't been able to post an update since my last! The wind still sucks ass, but at least I'm better rested today. It doesn't seem to piss me off as much that way. I slept in again so I expect to reach Shad's by 7 pm.
Date Posted:
Thu June 10th, 2004 4:49 pm
Location:
N 45° 39' 50.00"
W 94° 43' 56.00"
Gas (midgrade): $1.87
Miles: 5478
 That's the first time I've seen gas below 2 bucks in a long time! I made kick ass time on the freeway. I'll be there by 6:15.
Date Posted:
Thu June 10th, 2004 9:51 pm 		I'm at Shad's place! I'm checking in from his laptop. It's a mac, but it's ok. We can still be friends...
Date Posted:
Sat June 12th, 2004 3:43 am
Location:
N 44° 58' 18.00"
W 93° 17' 17.00"
Gas (midgrade): $1.97
Miles: 5580
 Yeah I'm crazy. I decided to take off for another long journey in the wee hours. Right now I'm lost somewhere near Minnesota University. Some genius thought it would be smart to close I94 on me. I am not pleased. Oh well. I guess I'll get the lost tourist view of the city. Today was cool. Shad took me to a Twins game. Then we spent some time catching up. It's really been awesome seeing all these friends that I haven't seen in ages. This has to be the best road trip yet. My deepest thanks to every one along the way and to every one who tracked me on this web page. Next stop is home for a nap and then on to Brian's party.
Date Posted:
Sat June 12th, 2004 7:04 am
Location:
N 43° 38' 42.00"
W 89° 48' 38.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.07
Miles: 5795
 It's amazing how much my fuel economy improves when I'm not trying to go 75 miles per hour against hurricane force winds!
Date Posted:
Sat June 12th, 2004 11:40 am
Gas (midgrade): $1.99
Miles: 6038
 Home again... But for how long?
Date Posted:
Sat June 12th, 2004 3:42 pm 		On my way to a hotel party in Muncie. There's a snake running loose in my house. I hope that situation remedies itself before I get home tomorrow.
Date Posted:
Sun June 13th, 2004 9:21 am 		Holy shit! We trashed this hotel room!
Date Posted:
Sun June 13th, 2004 11:11 am
Location:
N 40° 13' 40.00"
W 85° 33' 27.00"
Gas (midgrade): $2.10
Miles: 6265
 On my way to Fort Wayne to have lunch with Phil. It sounded like I woke him up when I called!
Date Posted:
Sun June 13th, 2004 3:42 pm
Location:
N 41° 14' 50.00"
W 85° 48' 50.00"
Miles: 6385
 Onward home! Only a couple hours of road time left for this trip. I've already accrued over one hundred hours behind the wheel!
Date Posted:
Sun June 13th, 2004 5:48 pm
Miles: 6474
 Home at last! Here's the stats- total distance: 6474. Average speed: 62.7 -that includes all putting around town at each destination- Max speed: 86.1

Click here to see pictures from my trip
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dave@isomtech.com