Tag: Road Trip

Travel

Done

So I’ve been pretty quiet recently because I’ve been absolutely exhausted. Once I returned from my last trip (which included an amazing experience at The Broad in Los Angeles), I had a mountain of tasks to complete as I wrapped up 21 days in a row of travel and in-office work. I promise I will return to regular posting again soon, but for a recap, here are all the places I made it to this fall:

  • New Orleans
  • Atlanta
  • Miami
  • West Palm Beach
  • Ft. Lauderdale
  • Chicago
  • Notre Dame
  • Traverse City, Michigan
  • Oberlin/Cleveland, Ohio
  • Seattle
  • Tacoma
  • Dallas
  • San Antonio
  • Austin (a particularly awful day-trip)
  • Los Angeles
  • San Diego

I can’t wait to share my adventures with you! This fall has gone by so quickly I almost forgot about the personal trip I’ll be taking in less than two weeks: Las Vegas. No matter how many times I’ve been to Vegas, it never seems to get old. Maybe someday, they will send me for work. Or at least a conference!

Texas, Travel

Pit Stop 

One of the benefits of spending my week driving all over Texas has been the short break I took stopping off in Waco. I’m sure the majority of you associate Waco, Texas with 90s cult leader David Koresh, but I associate it with college. For those interested though, you can still visit David Koresh’s compound. A friendly man with a shotgun named Andrew X98 will happily give you some informative pamphlets regarding their religion. 

I’m pretty sure every freshman visits that compound at some point, unless they chicken out. 

Anyway, I had some time to drive around campus and my old apartment to see how much has changed. It kind of felt like visiting an upgraded movie set of a show you used to star in: new buildings everywhere, new restaurants (how did Waco get an In-and-Out burger before Houston?), and even a mini mart walking distance from where I used to live. Considering it sells beer, wine, and liquor too, I’m sure I would have been a regular. 

Short on time, I grabbed lunch at an old favorite. Viteks used to only be open for lunch, but has since expanded their business and building. If you ever find yourself in Waco, be sure to get a gut pak (or even a half of one is plenty). It might not look like much, but it’s an amazing styrofoam box of BBQ and for me, nostalgia. 

Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Travel

Road Trip

I mentioned yesterday that I was busy planning and booking flights, hotels, and car rentals for my fall travel schedule. It always varies year to year, but this year I will be gone most of the end of September and all of October for multiple multi-city trips.  I typically fly a lot of places, but this year, since we are expanding and going to more cities, I was looking at ways to make things a little more economical.  Thus, I will be going on quite the adventure. MapIt turns out that the one hour flight from Chicago to Traverse City was going to cost over $300 alone, and the flight from Traverse City to Cleveland was going to go back through Chicago anyway.  Since I have the time to make the 734 mile drive, I’ll first set out for Traverse City, work there, then drive to to Cleveland, work there, and then fly home.  I better get a good car from Enterprise in Chicago, because it’s going to get some use!

I am pretty excited about this drive.  When I first started traveling for work, I rarely was able to fly anywhere except El Paso.  I’ve made the five hour drive to South Texas more times than I can count, and I’ve previously written about my meandering drive up to Amarillo.  While I love flying too, there’s something about setting out on the open road and being able to stop and see anything you want along the way.  We once did an overnight drive to Tampa, Florida and decided to stop off in Biloxi to play video poker at 3 a.m. just because we could.  We only regretted it later because, as it turns out, Florida is big!  It took seemingly forever to get around the bend and headed south toward Tampa. At that point, with intermittent sleep and three hours to go, a plane ticket sure seemed like the smarter choice.

I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories to share with you about my many mishaps this fall, but for now I’m looking forward to October, cooler weather, and all the sights along the way.