Road Trip Day #5

It has been a long week. We all woke up this morning just exhausted. After showering and reading (reading something brutal and probably illegal in most states), we left our hotel. We wanted to have 1 more Philly cheesesteak, so we went to Geno's again. Seriously, best cheesesteaks ever. Ever. Anywhere. So good. After eating, we started the drive. This is by far the worst leg of the trip. We're all tired and Philly is nowhere close to Chicago. We decided the best way to endure the trip was to bring extra cheesesteaks. We each bought 2, but Gootch bought 6. Such a good idea. So the timeline looks like this:

12.30 pm: Get to Geno's and buy cheesteaks.

12.35 pm: Finish first cheesesteak and head to car.

12.45 pm: On the road, thinking about the cheesesteaks.

3.45 pm: A fter 3 hours of driving, we stop for a rest and we had a cheesesteak.

6.45 pm: 2nd rest stop and last cheesesteak. This stop was in Ohio. We didn't even make to Indiana with cheesesteaks (and really, 6 hours after the purchase, the cold cheesesteak was still better than any other cheesesteak I had had prior to the trip).

As we were out of cheesesteaks, the rest of the drive was a blur. I slept some, to the annoyance of Gootch and Roy, my bad. We made it back to Chachi's house by midnight.

Overall, not a bad trip. 27 hours of driving, 6 states (7 including inebriation), 3 baseball games at 3 different stadiums, massive amounts of beer, NY's best pizza, Philly's (and the world's) best cheesesteak and a lot of memories. I can't wait for next years trip.

Road Trip Day #4

Apparently, my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. This is one of those things that you don't need to worry about. So let's see, we left for Philly today. We spent the obligatory night in NY (I look like a wookie) getting wasted and felt the effects this morning. To explain the wookie line, according to my three traveling companions, I leave hair in the bathroom shower and I snore like one. Granted, of the four of us, none of us have ever actually met a wookie, but Roy, Gootch and and Chachi are convinced that I snore like one. Maybe, I snore like one or one snores like me, but either way, I should get this checked out.

This morning we got up and headed to Philly. This was, by far, the easiest leg of the trip. It was only about 2 hours to drive so we had some free time. After getting to Philly and showering and reading we went to do the one thing we felt necessary while there, get a Philly cheesesteak. There are 2 places that are legendary, Geno's and Pat's. Both places are across the street from each other and are really not that big. Chachi and I decided to get one from each and split it so we could experience both. PHENOMENAL. Far and away, the best cheesesteaks we have ever had. The one weird thing that we noticed is that Geno's was easily better than Pat's, but Pat's was still better than any cheesesteak I had ever had. I am not sure what it was, but everything about it was so good.

After that, we went to the game. We saw the Phillies play the Mets. We got to see Santana pitch for the Mets, but again, we were not that interested in the outcome. This lead to walking around the stadium, which is really nice, and leaving the game early. We went to hotel and got some food and headed out for the night. Shockingly, after 4 days of driving and partying, we were all exhausted and just wanted a quiet night. We rallied and ended up having a good time though.

That is all from Philly until tomorrow.

Road Trip Day #3

New York, New York, it's a hell of a town, you know the Bronx is up but I'm Brooklyn down. It's the New York day of this road trip and we are exhausted. Pittsburgh showed us a good time last night after the Cubs batting practice, but we had no idea what was in store today. This is an exceptionally late blog for me, but I feel like I have to get it in. We drove this morning, sorry, I drove this morning while everyone slept, to New York. It was an uneventful drive other than the fact that Pennsylvania is all trees. There are miles and miles of rolling hills COVERED in trees. Trees as far as the eye can see for the entire state. I am pretty sure that the state is all trees except for Philly, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Also, a lot of the towns end in "burg" which is a side note most won't care about.

We got to NY and showered and read and made our way to Yankee Stadium. This was an easy feat by the simple use of the subway (LA, I am looking at you). The game was, in all honesty, not that exciting. I think that we were way too excited about the fact we were seeing a Red Sox-Yankees game to get emotionally involved in the outcome. After a few beers, and me falling asleep in the seats, we decided to leave. As a side note, in Pittsburgh, we were 8 rows from the field and in NY, we were 4 rows from the top of the stadium. It is a drastic changed in perspective, but I still took some good pictures.

After the game, we went out. Bar hopping in Times Square is not that difficult, regardless of what people say. In fact, it was cheaper than I thought. I bought a round, 2 beers and 2 mixed drinks, for less than $30. Not too shabby. By the time we hit the 3rd bar, it was officially my birthday. Gootch and I did a shot of Patron. By the time Roy and Chachi decided they were actually men enough to do a shot, we took down some Jager. I am beginning to think that was a bad idea. Wait, no, scratch that, Jager was the best possible option at that point. The only reason for that is because a song came on from the jukebox that riled up Gootch. In fact, it got him so upset, we made a wager on who sang the song and I won. He owes me money and he is bitter and I am happy. He is going to read this and be pissed, but he should have known better.

At this point, I have the Roy cacophony in the background and I know I need to go to sleep. The next blog will be from Philly. Take care.

Road Trip Day #2

I woke up this morning spooning an ironing board. The more I thought about the opening line of this blog, the more I thought I should explain it. Here goes.......The first time I went to Las Vegas, all 3 guys I am on my current road trip with were in Vegas with me. One afternoon, resting between drinking/gambling/debauchery sessions, Chachi was sleeping on a chair in the room. He started snoring (I really can't blame him for this, I snore like a lumberjack, but as I was awake at the time, I detested the excessive noise). As we wanted to rest before the night out, we decided that the only way to stifle the noise was to put the potted tree and unfolded ironing board next to the chair. That did not work. Thus, the ironing board in bed with people sleeping began.

Not very much happened last night. We searched for bars that were open but soon realized that there were very few Pittsburghians that wanted to drink on a Sunday night. We ended up at the hotel bar and drank our fill. This morning, after waking up with an ironing board, we went to get food. As we were across the street from the ballpark, we went to the closest bar for food. The very uninterested waiter/bartender got our order wrong (Oh, that's right, when I ordered the Mushroom Swiss Burger, I actually meant the Bacon Cheddar Burger), but the fries were really good.

After that bar, we walked across the river (Allegheny River), and went to the hotel where the Cubs are staying. We saw a few of the players leave on the bus. This was a exciting, but felt vaguely stalkerish. After that, we went back to the hotel to rest up for the game.

We went to the stadium and we were impressed. Pittsburgh clearly decided that the stadium was worth more than their team. There were so many Cubs fans I determined that we were in Wrigley Field East. For a home stadium, it was empty. The majority of the people there were rooting for the Cubs. The Cubs were in great form tonight and destroyed the Pirates 12-3. We were very happy about this and celebrated like any Cubs fans would.

We went to a bar with some Canadians that were also Cub's fans. I love the fact that there are Cub's fans everywhere. Tomorrow we drive to New York. This might not be that coherent, but it has been a long day.

Road Trip Day #1

The party last night went really well. It was especially fun to see Fordy steal a shot off the bar and turn around and walk away. At the end of the night, I decided that we needed a bottle of champagne. It wasn't a regular bottle, but a magnum (we used to buy magnums of champagne for $10 and drink them at Scummy. Granted, it was always a good idea to buy the champagne, at the time, but after the first glass, we would have to force ourselves to finish it.). When we left, I grabbed a bottle for him, and did not think too much about it. We went back to my best friends house (with White Castle, I don't have that in California so I eat as much of it as I can when I come back home......mmmmm sliders). I repeatedly said how I procured the bottle for my friend and that he should drink it. He did not drink it. Neither did I. Nor did anyone as we were too busy shoving as much White Castle in our faces as we could. It was only in the morning that I realized that I did not grab champagne, I accidentally grabbed a bottle of red wine (which was literally labeled as "Soft Red Wine"). I am very happy we decided not to drink any of it.

Today, we left for the 2008 version of the Baseball Road Trip (we being me, Gootch, Roy and Chachi). Driving from Chicago to Pittsburgh is not that exciting. Gootch and I were in the back seat and had wars with our water bottles. We stopped in Ohio to eat and got assaulted with a wide variety of life forms we were not familiar with. Seeing a group of Amish eating Burger King is a site that will not easily be repeated. I think we only got really scared when Chachi and I saw the guy with 1 eye. When we got here, we went to a few bars and ended up at the hotel bar. Our hotel is across the street from PNC Park and tomorrow we will see the Pirates play the Cubs.

There has been much discussion about this blog and what I should post on it. Obviously, a lot of it will not be posted, but I have many ideas now. Take care and there will be more tomorrow about the baseball game and this trip.