Got the rest of the pictures online.

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Days 7-9: Grand Canyon to Legoland

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Days 10-11: Giant Sequoias and Alcatraz

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Days 12-14: California to Minnesota

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Days 15-17: Midwest through Home

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Note: these are links to the Picasa uploads of the photos (which can be browsed a bit faster, and allows for larger photos). Here’s the Facebook links if that’s more your thing (includes stuff like, location tags).

• Days 0-3: To Colorado
• Days 4-6: Colorado Plateau
• Days 7-9: Grand Canyon and Legoland
• Days 10-11: Sequoias and Alcatraz
• Days 12-14: California to Minnesota
• Days 15-17: Midwest through Home

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From here its the long task of converting 120,000 still photos from my dashboard camera into some time lapse. That one might take a while! Also still have more cost/postmortem analysis forthcoming.

Been working through my photos – of the 4,000 taken I’ve whittled it down to about 1,000.

And here are the first two sets!

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Days 0-3: To Colorado

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Days 4-6: Colorado Plateau

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More to come.

Home at last! A mere 7796.7 miles later I am back in my own bed in my own house with my own cat all over me (he does not enjoy extended absences on my part). Writing this as he rubs his head all over me in bed here. House was in excellent shape save one broken pot and one of my circuits being tripped (concerningly, the one that says it does the sump pump amongst other things – but no water seen).

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Recap of the last trip day (from Milwaukee to Buffalo in a mere 15 hours). Plan was to start with breakfast in Kenosha at Frank’s Diner (as seen on DDD). Got there and the line was out the door, soooo I decided no corned beef hash was worth a wait when I had as much driving ahead as I did.

Pushed through to Illinois and got my deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s (a local chain) and ate it in the car. Good on its own terms, but I’ll take regular pizza.

Next I found a Trader Joe’s since I had meant to stop at one when I was out west and basically forgot – this was going to be my last chance. Stocked up on various powerberries and pita chips.

From there, I didn’t have anything else specific to stop at, so I drove in through the north side, circled Wrigley field, and drove along the lake until I got sort of tired of it, at which point I caught up with the interstate again to head out of town (around south side).

And from there it was just a lot of driving – Indiana to Michigan through Canada home. Ran out of drink provisions for the third time, but finally found Diet Cherry Pepsi at a gas station outside Detroit. Seriously did not see any anywhere since I had left New York, to the point where I wonder if that is a semi regional thing.

Crossed into Canada around Port Huron – the customs officer was curious why I didn’t go around Lake Erie from the other way, but Cleveland is boring. At the U.S. side I got approximately zero questions, so the whole thing was the inverse of my last foray into Canada. From there it was my first familiar roads in 17 days.

Expect frequent and sporadic updates as I work through my 3,963 photos (plus the tens of thousand taken by the dashboard camera I’m going to spin into timelapse) and do final analysis on costs, mileage, gas etc (I collected a LOT of data). Also post-mortems (there’s a good deal of things I would plan differently).

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Day: 680.4
Trip: 7796.7 (FINAL)

Rest day of sorts in Wisconsin. Started off in Green Bay, driving around Lambeau Field (which is very nice).

Next stop was the Nation’s Largest Cookware Store which I saw a pamphlet for in the hotel. It was big! Finally got a bread knife that will fit my knife block (and a sheath for the old one so it won’t cut me sitting in a drawer).

Next was on to Milwaukee. Still trying to kill time before I could check in at 3:00, so I stopped at AJ Bombers, which won the Food Wars for best Milwaukee Burger (colby cheese, fried onions, and bacon). It was very excellent.

Still killing time, I dropped by Miller Park to get my ticket early and visit the team store. I was ready to get a Corey Hart jersey, but they did not have any printed, and to make one would of been $120 plus $50 for the embroidery ($10 off since legally, its my name – I don’t have to pay the player’s association fee). Too rich for me, so I settle for the t-shirt with my name on it.

Side note – a problem with a baseball park not in the city center is it is really hard to figure out where you can park when its not gametime – drove around a good while trying to find a nearby side street to use.

Recharged breifly before heading in.

Ate at the park – found the brisket smothered bacon wrapped hot dog. It was difficult to eat, but literally everything on it was things I liked (well, not the pickle or jalapenos as much). Also had cheese fries in a souvenir helmet and some cheese popcorn (which I grabbed by accident when I wanted regular kettle corn). Lots of food.

Game was close! I played pretty well (for going 0-4). The park itself is remarkably different then my experience going to PNC Park – bigger and more self-contained.

Also I somehow missed them opening the roof between the end of the game and me driving by it while leaving – would of been cool to see.

And that was it. Tomorrow I do Chicago early (I don’t know what, exactly – I want deep dish pizza, then like… stadiums? Haymarket Square?), then its pushing straight through to home.

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Day: 167.8
Trip: 7116.1

Slowing things down before the final push. Today’s big thing was the Mall of America, which turns out to be like a regular mall, except it has all the stores you’d want in one spot, rather then spread across several of them in a town. Also 2 each of like, GameSpot, and Auntie Anne’s. And like 4 Lids (finally got a normal ass Sabres hat that fits my enormous head).

Actually it doesn’t have everything – no Dick’s, no Penny’s. A fun thing was by the third floor, you have all the bullshit stores you usually see in smaller malls. Like a magic store, and board game stores, and memorabillia stores. Saw a Mr. Bean bobblehead with creeeepy eyes.

Also there was a LEGO store with a much better selection then the one at Legoland, strangely.

Also also there is an amusement park. There isn’t just a roller coaster, there are actually 3. And an aquarium. I did none of them.

Onwards from there to the first DDD destination I added to my list: Kramarczuk Sausage Co. in Minneapolis. Half-restuarant, half-deli. Got the combo plate with verenyky (ukranian pierogi), ukranian sausage, and a cabbage roll. Easily the best meal all trip. Also saw the owner’s daughter who walked Guy through the recipe’s on the show behind the deli counter.

After that it was just a quick jaunt across literally all of Wisconsin to my stop for the night in Green Bay. Staying in the shadow of Lambeau (thought I saw Boomer Esiason getting coffee, but I checked and he wouldn’t be in town.

Tomorrow I check out the stadium, go to the Nation’s Largest Kitchen Store I found a pamphlet for, then head to Milwaukee for the Brewer’s game.

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Day: 344.7
Trip: 6948.3