Mundane travel thread

I'm presuming this is a business trip then, rather than a holiday? Otherwise, why would you be in Nashville drinking if it's a shithole akin to Blackpool (which I concur is a dreadful place to be out boozing unless you like fighting)?

NFL Week 1, Jets @ Titans. Good friend of mine is a Titans fan who has never seen them at home, I gave up my Jets STs because I realised it was more fun to spend $5K a year to see the Jets twice and make a big weekend of it than $10K to see them 8 times a year in Jersey.

They smoked the Titans this afternoon in outrageously hot weather and it was fun as fuck.

I'm on an American road trip driving from LA to New York. Made it to the border of Idaho and Wyoming and started talking to a women who has spent the last 8 years cycling around the US and has covered 23 states. Makes my 1000 miles in two days look a bit mediocre.

Bloody hell slow down. At this rate you will be here before Friday and we have to find the blow up bed

Chicago: Disorganised.

I dunno, I bet it took her weeks to manage that.

Fuckwit here messed up the booking for Jackson Wyoming. Arrived at the hotel, and I took an instant dislike to the unsmiling, officious twat on reception. The feeling was clearly mutual as he informed me that he had no booking under my name for tonight and he seemingly took great pleasure in telling me there was no room at the inn. Turned out I'd booked it for tomorrow night. One of the occasions where AI on the phone could have been really useful and informed me when booking that I'd already booked a hotel for Wednesday night, but it didn't.

Finding a room in Jackson on the day is not easy. My friend managed to find one, so he booked a room and we decamped to that hotel. We tried to check in and it turned out he'd also booked the room for tomorrow night instead of tonight. Fortunately the guy at reception was much more helpful and they did have a room. If that's the only thing that goes wrong on this trip then we'll be doing well.

Checked the rest of my bookings and they are all fine, otherwise I'd have been staying with Chicago for far longer than intended.....

Anyway, Jackson is awesome and utterly stunning, so off to explore. Tomorrow we head to Yellowstone.

Jackson is truly stunning - just avoid the cowboy bar unless your looking for late shenanigans.

Went to Sidewinders; the bison burger was very tasty.

Some very high altitudes during today's journey. We left Jackson at 5.30am to beat the crowds in Yellowstone and were rewarded with a magnificent sunrise as we entered the park. The park is mostly above 7000 feet, so I did struggle a bit with breathing walking some of the hills (a legacy of my illness many years ago), so we couldn't do some of the steeper hills, but still had a good walk around the multitude of geysers and other sights. If you've never been then I highly recommend it.

The continental divide is at 8266 feet and we thought that would be the highest we reached, but the mountain pass between Ten Sleep ( what a name) and Buffalo, WY rose to 9666 feet, with some amazing rock formations.

Fucking tired now; we enter South Dakota tomorrow and will explore the Badlands before heading on to Sioux Falls.

Thanks @chicago and Vanessa for a great stopover in Chicago; you have a fantastic house! The biblical rain made it extra interesting. Driving across South Dakota was a real experience. Even before we left Wyoming there were endless ad signs for "Wall Drug": "Kids love Wall Drug"; "World's largest Jackalope sculpture" (there surely can't be many others). I'm sure there's an episode of the Simpsons where they're driving along a desolate freeway and they keep seeing signs for something similar, and I guess that's what it's based on.

There are loads of "World's Biggest" in the US of course (many of the world's largest people seemingly love in the Upper Midwest for starters), so it's all rather amusing. We stopped at Badlands National Park which was stunning; seeing pictures of it doesn't really prepare you for the reality.

One good thing about states like Wyoming and South Dakota is that the speed limit is 80, which allows you to travel through them as fast as possible.

We stayed in Sioux Falls SD, which was a surprisingly nice place; I was expecting the usual US-style concreted enclosure with a busy freeway right next to it, but the falls were actually fairly impressive.

From Sioux Falls on to Chicago, with the freeway gradually getting wider and busier. A few things have changed hugely since I lived here; the legalisation of cannabis in many states is one of them. This leads to interesting paradoxes: in Wisconsin it is illegal both for recreational and medicinal use, but in Illinois it is totally legal. Such a stupid concept. Driving in Chicago it's not unusual to smell weed from the car in front.
Proces have also gone up hugely since I lived here. You could get a soup or salad, main and dessert with bottomless coffee for $12 in the diner round the corner from me in New York; now it's more like $30.
We had a great time with our very own Chicago and other half, apart from watching the Forest match where I feared for the safety of the TV when Firestart goal was disallowed. The rain was biblical, but with good company and good food it didn't matter.
We've made it to Indiana (welcomed with decaying industrial sites and hideous pollution from the remaining manufacturing sites in Gary) and found a diner called Mom's Breakfast were we had a huge breakfast for $15 each, so there is still value to be had. We have our longest drive today, not wanting to stay over in Indiana or Ohio (anyone who's been to either state would understand why). We're pushing on to the Pocono mountains, leaving us only a 2.5 hour drive to NYC tomorrow where we finish our road trip with three nights in the city.

The original plan was to take in Toronto and visit Russ, but my friend has had to cut his trip short by 2 days so it wasn't feasible. Next time!

One thing I forgot to mention was the fantastic ads by the side of the I-90 as you go through Gary Indiana; "Amnesia Haze; you'll forget you're in Indiana". The Freeway ads are for Weed, Injury lawyers, or god. Take your pick...

Just under 4000 miles later and we've made it to New York. Although it's almost 20 years since I lived here, it still feels like a home from home, and my New York driving skills returned the instant I crossed the bridge from New Jersey. The Big Orange One is in town for the next two days and we passed the restaurant where he would be eating later. Lots of police everywhere and secret service; the city has even more sirens blaring all over the place than usual. They had some serious hardware by the restaurant and drones flying around.

Of course, they love him in New York these days, and there were multitudes of protesters in the next block making a racket loud enough for him to hear, not that he gives a fuck.

We're staying in Long Island City, which used to be a real shithole when I lived on New York. It's still quite sketchy where we got off the subway at 21st Street, but the gentrification is spreading, and by 25th Street where we are staying, it's much calmer.

Brooklyn is unrecognisable from when I was here; there are skyscrapers almost to rival Manhattan now. Went up the Empire State Building, which I always think is better at night as there are no queues and the view is spectacular. The Chrysler Building is now dwarfed by several taller skyscrapers nearby which is a shame as they are pug-ugly compared to the elegance of the Chrysler Building.

Is it really 20 years since you have lived there? Holy shit! Does this mean I have known Russ that long? Blimey!

Time is going way too quickly. Thank God it’s all an A.I. construct. Yes hard to believe in 1993 my Scottish mate and I were pulled over and nearly shot by Brooklyn police in Bedford Stuyvesant thinking we were drug dealers because we were the only white people within 5 miles and the place was riddled with crack. It is now super fancy. The price of progression eh?

Christ I have known half you Trickies for over half my life? Where has all the time gone?

Chicago: Feeling philosophical.

Just echoing quite a lot of what Chicago said.
It’s been 13 years since I left New Jersey and I’ve now two children and an actual career. What the hell happened?

18 years ago I left the UK to live in Thailand. I spent three years dossing about on beaches, drinking beer, not a care in the world. Then I met my wife.

Now I'm married with two kids with a shit boring job living in Wales. Apparently this is a good thing.