TRJF's 4,000-Mile Road Trip!!!

[TheRealJoeFish]

Hey everyone! Today is the first day of my 28-day, 4,000-mile road trip through the eastern third of the United States!!! I figured I'd start a thread to serve as a bit of a travelogue and give me a spot to post pictures of the different places I've been and things I've seen!!!

So, here's the trip:
Day 1: Pittsburgh, PA
Day 2: Charleston, WV
Day 3: Cincinnati, OH
Day 4: Louisville, KY
Day 5: Indianapolis, IN
Days 6-7: Chicago, IL
Day 8: St. Louis, MO
Days 9-16: Memphis, TN
Days 17-18: Natchez, MS
Days 19-20: New Orleans, LA
Day 21: Pensacola, FL
Days 22-24: Jacksonville, FL
Day 25: Savannah, GA
Day 26: Columbia, SC
Day 27: Greensboro, NC
Day 28: Washington, DC

At every new stop, I'll post some pictures and musings, so, if that's the kind of thing you'd find enjoyable, check back here over the next 4 weeks!

A few notes on the trip:

I plan on going to three MLB games: Cardinals @ Reds, Tigers @ White Sox, and Brewers @ Cardinals!
My brother lives just outside of Memphis, and I haven't gotten to him in the 2.5 years he's been down there, so that's why I'm staying in (the suburbs of) Memphis for a week!
In addition to my brother, I have friends I'm staying with in Natchez, New Orleans, Jacksonville and Columbia!
Amazingly, the longest single drive of my trip is the only one within a state: Pensacola to Jacksonville!

I'll post my Pittsburgh page soon!

[TheRealJoeFish]

Day 1: Pittsburgh, PA

Starting at my family home in central PA, I drove about 200 miles west to Pittsburgh! One of the few cities on my trip I've been to before, I took a leisurely stroll around the city, met my brother (who's going to college in the city), and went to the Andy Warhol museum (Andrew Warhola was born in Pittsburgh in 1928).

Here's some pictures:

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The outside of the Andy Warhol museum. At 7-stories, it touts itself as the most dedicated single-artist museum in the world.

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Steel is the bones of the Steel City, but ketchup is its lifeblood.

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Further proof: Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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PNC Park, one of the nicest ballparks in the MLB and home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh is the only city in the U.S. with 3 or more major pro sports teams that share the same color scheme (black and yellow/gold).

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I forget what building this is, but it kicks ass.

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I forget what pigeon this is, but it kicks ass. (That is: saw an awesomely mottled pigeon while waiting for my brother)

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My brother (left) and me (right).

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We ate at Primanti Brothers!

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All Primanti Bros. sandwiches come, famously, with coleslaw and french fries ON THE SANDWICH.

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Let me know if this is a good format!

Unfortunately, the Pirates were off today, or I'd have surely gone to a game. I'm in the hotel now, may go for a drink later, but tonight is going to have a lot of relaxing and planning for the next three days. I've never been to Charleston, Cincinnati or Louisville, and want to experience as much as I can!!!

Check back later for more fun stuffs!

[Little lunch]

Good stuff, TRJF.
Looking forward to the next instalment.
Yes, that building does kick arse. :-)

[Seraphina]

Cool, a road trip, you're so lucky!

My favorite part of traveling is encountering unexpected mini-stories and people-watching. And the food of course. So tell us some anecdotes about the people and places you see.

Have fun!

[account_inactive]

Great pics.

[Brian37]

Hey everyone! Today is the first day of my 28-day, 4,000-mile road trip through the eastern third of the United States!!! I figured I'd start a thread to serve as a bit of a travelogue and give me a spot to post pictures of the different places I've been and things I've seen!!!

So, here's the trip:
Day 1: Pittsburgh, PA
Day 2: Charleston, WV
Day 3: Cincinnati, OH
Day 4: Louisville, KY
Day 5: Indianapolis, IN
Days 6-7: Chicago, IL
Day 8: St. Louis, MO
Days 9-16: Memphis, TN
Days 17-18: Natchez, MS
Days 19-20: New Orleans, LA
Day 21: Pensacola, FL
Days 22-24: Jacksonville, FL
Day 25: Savannah, GA
Day 26: Columbia, SC
Day 27: Greensboro, NC
Day 28: Washington, DC

At every new stop, I'll post some pictures and musings, so, if that's the kind of thing you'd find enjoyable, check back here over the next 4 weeks!

A few notes on the trip:

I plan on going to three MLB games: Cardinals @ Reds, Tigers @ White Sox, and Brewers @ Cardinals!
My brother lives just outside of Memphis, and I haven't gotten to him in the 2.5 years he's been down there, so that's why I'm staying in (the suburbs of) Memphis for a week!
In addition to my brother, I have friends I'm staying with in Natchez, New Orleans, Jacksonville and Columbia!
Amazingly, the longest single drive of my trip is the only one within a state: Pensacola to Jacksonville!

I'll post my Pittsburgh page soon!

That sounds extremely exhausting. I flew to Japan once back in 2000, that wiped me out. You really must love driving, I hate driving. But, everyone is different so enjoy it.

[TheRealJoeFish]

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Hey everyone! Today is the first day of my 28-day, 4,000-mile road trip through the eastern third of the United States!!! I figured I'd start a thread to serve as a bit of a travelogue and give me a spot to post pictures of the different places I've been and things I've seen!!!

So, here's the trip:
Day 1: Pittsburgh, PA
Day 2: Charleston, WV
Day 3: Cincinnati, OH
Day 4: Louisville, KY
Day 5: Indianapolis, IN
Days 6-7: Chicago, IL
Day 8: St. Louis, MO
Days 9-16: Memphis, TN
Days 17-18: Natchez, MS
Days 19-20: New Orleans, LA
Day 21: Pensacola, FL
Days 22-24: Jacksonville, FL
Day 25: Savannah, GA
Day 26: Columbia, SC
Day 27: Greensboro, NC
Day 28: Washington, DC

At every new stop, I'll post some pictures and musings, so, if that's the kind of thing you'd find enjoyable, check back here over the next 4 weeks!

A few notes on the trip:

I plan on going to three MLB games: Cardinals @ Reds, Tigers @ White Sox, and Brewers @ Cardinals!
My brother lives just outside of Memphis, and I haven't gotten to him in the 2.5 years he's been down there, so that's why I'm staying in (the suburbs of) Memphis for a week!
In addition to my brother, I have friends I'm staying with in Natchez, New Orleans, Jacksonville and Columbia!
Amazingly, the longest single drive of my trip is the only one within a state: Pensacola to Jacksonville!

I'll post my Pittsburgh page soon!

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That sounds extremely exhausting. I flew to Japan once back in 2000, that wiped me out. You really must love driving, I hate driving. But, everyone is different so enjoy it.

Ah I do love driving! I always volunteer to drive, although my friends aren't always keen on riding with me (I live by Interstates 80, 81, and 84, so that means you go 80, 81, and 84 mph on them, right?) I kept having dreams where I would drive way out west very far and such. No drive is longer than 5 hours; it's about 70 hours of driving spread out over 18 days or so

[Brian37]

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That sounds extremely exhausting. I flew to Japan once back in 2000, that wiped me out. You really must love driving, I hate driving. But, everyone is different so enjoy it.

Ah I do love driving! I always volunteer to drive, although my friends aren't always keen on riding with me (I live by Interstates 80, 81, and 84, so that means you go 80, 81, and 84 mph on them, right?) I kept having dreams where I would drive way out west very far and such. No drive is longer than 5 hours; it's about 70 hours of driving spread out over 18 days or so

Not speaking about you personally. But in general humans are extremely impractical. The desire to speed is simply an appeal to risk taking, and there is necessary risk taking, like getting to the moon, and ego. I used to like sports cars, but hate them now. Not only is there more risk to injury the faster you go, but because we have raised the national speed limit, we go through tones more oil, on top of stupidly still being stuck on it.  I stick to just under the speed limit to avoid a ticket and I keep my distance from the vehicles in front of me. I figure it this way, I really don't give a fuck where someone needs to go, they aren't going to pay my ticket if I get pulled over. And if they tailgate me, that to me shows they have no concern for the safety of others on the road.

[Aoi Magi]

That pigeon could definitely kick the ass of that building... ooh shiny

[TheRealJoeFish]

Day 2: Charleston, West Virginia (Part 1: History and State Capitol)

Day two of my trip was a 200-mile drive southwest from Pittsburgh to Charleston, the Capitol of West Virginia. West Virginia is a very rural state: although its population is 1.9 million, Charleston is its largest city at only 50,400 (that would be the 11th-largest city in my home state of Pennsylvania), and among the fifty states only Vermont's largest city is smaller. West Virginia is known as "the only state born of the civil war": while Virginia seceded, the northwestern portion of the state was more aligned with the Union (and, importantly, of course, was secured by Union soldiers for all but 6 weeks of the war). Lincoln declared it a separate state by presidential decree in 1863.

The town of Charleston is located on the Kanawha River, and was actually pretty nice!

Here are some pictures of the State Capitol and the historical monuments on the grounds:

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The Capitol in all its glory. One of the nicest I've seen. It was built in 1931, as the previous Capitol building burned down. This is actually the back of the building.

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A closer view of the statue of Lincoln on the steps.

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The front of the Capitol. There is a reproduction of the Liberty Bell in the foreground (big deal, my state's got the real one ).

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Statue of Booker T. Washington near the Capitol. He lived in WV for a period of his childhood. Washington may have done more for the community of newly-liberated slaves freed during the civil war than anyone else.

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A statue commemorating the coal miners of WV and the coal mining industry. Leaving aside the politically charged state of the coal industry today, there was a very long period of time during which West Virginia, even more than the state's bordering it, was essentially the battery that powered the nation's industrial progress.

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The interior of the war memorial on the Capitol grounds. This is the WWII wall; there were walls for WWI, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. This list (which extends out of the frame on both sides) is that of all West Virginia residents who were killed in action during WWII. By my calculation of 20 panels, 72 lines in each panel, and 5 or 6 names on each line, that's just under 8,000 names.

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Just across the Kanawha River from the Capitol is the (quite pretty, I must say) University of Charleston (not to be confused with the College of Charleston; that's in Charleston, South Carolina). It's a small school (about 1000 students) but looked rather neat from across the river. The picture doesn't do it justice; it looked a lot less... industrial in person.

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Pictures from Downtown are coming next!