So, tomorrow I begin my Eastward trek to the Big Apple. We have a few things planned for the journey up, including a visit to the St. Louis Gateway Arch. I haven't been to that thing since 6th grade (or maybe 4th grade), so it will be fun to go up to the top again. I just hope that the rain that we've been having these past few days subsides while we visit.
I remember that the elevator tram that takes you up is egg shaped and it goes up like its going up stairs.
We also have a scheduled stop to a little pizza joint called DiCarlo's in Wheeling West Virginia. Its supposed to be a good pie and we should be hitting the Appalachians around dinnertime so it works out well.
We have a ton of options when we get to NYC (obviously), so we'll start picking and choosing where we'll end up. There are a couple "must do" things on my list however. First, its to finally see Wicked. I lolligagged when this was showing in LA and just never scheduled a time to go. However, it will be cool to see it on Broadway. Secondly, we'll be dining at Ninja New York. It looks like a fancy-shmancy sushi place, but it looks pretty ill.
My last must see item on my first road trip of the year is a visit to Gettysburg National Military Park. We'll actually hit this on the way back from New York, but I'm really excited for this part. I've already downloaded about 3 hours worth of guided tours onto my iPod so I'm good to go. Unfortunately, due to time constraints we won't be able to spend the recommended 4 to 5 hours there, so we'll probably do the quick auto tour and check out some of the highlights.
OK, so I've been trying to compile some figures and mileage. As we were planning this voyage I began wondering how many miles have I racked up taking such excursions. My love affair with the open road started at a very young age. Since we had a shotgun blast sprinkling of relatives all over the place our family would often hit the highways each summer and during some winter holidays. I spoke with my mom on many of the numbers from my early childhood to try and get some sort of estimate.
Please note that this is definitely an estimate. I'll really have to sit down one day and try and figure out exactly how many miles its been, but for curiosity's sake, we'll just do a rough break down. Now, I'm only counting trips greater than 4 hours. This will eliminate many visits "home" during my college years (my parents lived about 3 hours from where I went to college). I will also eliminate all of the quick trips from Orange County to Las Vegas.
I'm also not sure at all about how many times I've made the trek to the Bay Area over the past 9 years, so I'll just use a very broad estimate of 30. It may be more, but that's probably a good guess.
So, without any ado, lets take a look. I'll include some mileage estimates courtesy of Google for travel ONE way there, then I'll multiply that by the number of trips and then double that number (so I can account for the miles getting there and coming back).
| Destination | # of trips | 1-way mileage | Total miles |
| Childhood through College (from Columbia Missouri) | |||
| Disney World Orlando | 2 | 1119 | 4476 |
| Disney Land Anaheim/LA | 2 | 1743 | 6972 |
| Jacksonville FL | 1 | 1760 | 3520 |
| NYC/NJ | 6 | 1072 | 12864 |
| Toronto Canada | 2 | 897 | 3588 |
| Yellowstone National Park | 1 | 1337 | 2674 |
| Ames IA | 6 | 348 | 4176 |
| Edgerton WI | 6 | 423 | 5076 |
| Chicago IL | 4 | 387 | 3096 |
| College Days | |||
| Toronto Canada | 1 | 897 | 1794 |
| Oklahoma City OK | 1 | 471 | 942 |
| Lake Forest CA (flew back) | 1 | 1836 | 1836 |
| Chicago IL | 3 | 387 | 2322 |
| Nashville TN | 1 | 435 | 870 |
| Minneapolis MN (flew back) | 1 | 557 | 557 |
| After college (mostly from Irvine CA) | |||
| Jersey City NJ (flew back) | 1 | 3031 | 3031 |
| San Franscisco/Vallejo CA | 30 | 422 | 25320 |
| Lake Tahoe | 1 | 530 | 1060 |
| Columbia MO | 3 | 1978 | 11868 |
| Columbia MO (from SF CA) | 1 | 1996 | 3992 |
| Phoenix AZ | 1 | 361 | 722 |
| TOTAL | 100756 |
Dang...that's starting to rack up huh? Hmm, the Moon is around 240,000 miles away from Earth. So, with all of the road trips I've taken, I could have gotten almost halfway to the freakin Moon!
Speaking of which, I need to start getting the rest of my stuff together. I have to pack up all the road trip junk food and Redbulls.
New York City here we come!
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