The Great American Road Trip: Day Two, or One Does Not Simply Drive Through Chicago

As Day Two dawned, we left Toledo and headed west.  Unfortunately, we seemed to have ran over something that seems to knocked something loose under the car and now the Cube sounds like it’s auditioning to be a Harley.  But once we get under motion, it returns to normal.

We left Ohio and after driving past fields of soy bean and corn, we entered Indiana:

The morning saw us cruise past more soy and corn and drive by the alma mater of Professor Harold Hill:

And before we know it, we were in Chicago (no “Welcome to Illinois” here – just straight – You’re in Chicago):

And now the fun began. My wife had the misfortune of driving and the great progress we made dwindled to nothing as we hit construction and traffic.  The stop and go traffic was great for me to get pictures, not for my wife who had to deal with the noise the car made overtime it stopped and stress of dealing with the drivers who insist on switching lanes when there isn’t necessary space.  But I got a few good pictures of the Chicago skyline:

And finally, the most intriguing shot:

Are we in Chicago or Morder?

I’m going with Morder personally, because I found the Illinois section of Route 90 to be the worst we’ve dealt with so far! We complain about how expensive things are in New York, but we’ve got nothing on Illinois! We must have paid over $30 in tolls (I wish we’d actually kept track) for the pleasure of driving through Illinois.  And instead of doing something sensible, like give you a ticket and pay when you leave, if you don’t have EZ Pass, you have to exit off the highway, pay the stupid toll and then get back on. And you get to do this a bunch of times.

Thanks goodness we accidentally got off when we didn’t need to because we eventually found a park where we could get out and have a nice picnic.  We then circled around forever trying to get back onto Route 90 and finally got on the way.

And we finally left Illinois and made it to Wisconsin:

And we had the enjoyment of more bumper to bumper traffic, this time as a result of an accident.  We finally made it to our hotel and we were all glad to get out of the car!

A great meal at the Great Dane Brewing Company was a great way to end the day.  However, crappy wifi at our hotel has not been any fun.

Happy journeys!!

Mike

Read More

The Great American Road Trip: Day One

Today, we left on our Great American Road Trip today. Here is the odometer at the start of our trip:

And then we started to drive…and drive…and drive…

We left New York and entered Pennsylvania:

and then into Ohio:

We drove past Lake Erie:

And past Cleveland:

It’s the best I could capture while I was a passenger.

And now, here we are at just south of Toledo, just over 500 miles from home.  Tomorrow – it’s on to Madison, WI!

Happy Journeys!

Mike

Read More

To Boldly Go….

The countdown is on for the Great American Road Trip at the Tefft household. Five more days of work (which can’t finish soon enough) and we are on our way to Seattle and back.  I’m intending to blog every day to document our travels and I hope you watch the pages for the riveting details of spending 6 – 7 hours in a car every day :). With content like that, how could you not want to stay?

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I haven’t done anything yet because we haven’t had vacation yet.  But what I’ve mostly been doing is working my day job…..ALOT. This was the first weekend in several weeks that I haven’t worked at least part of the weekend.

And I’ve been playing trumpet. Twice a week in local community summer bands and the big band group I play in did a concert in the park that is literally across the street from my house.  Couldn’t really ask for a closer gig!

I have managed to catch a few movies this summer. We say  Star Trek Beyond (which I loved – my personal opinion is that it’s the best of the reboots) and today we just saw Suicide Squad which I also liked quite a bit. Truth be told, I liked it much more that Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Maybe it’s a better written and directed movie, but I found the horrible villains of Suicide Squad far more sympathetic; I cared about them more than Batman or Superman.

AND I WROTE!!!

I finally had a couple of free hours on Saturday so I hammered out the completion of a very tough scene. I know what I wanted to accomplish, but I wasn’t sure how. I’ll still have to rewrite it, but I’ve got enough there to keep moving forward.

This is the last update before the trip. Stay tuned for adventures on the road…I’m sure it will be riveting!

Happy journeys,

Mike

 

Read More

“Space…The Final Frontier….”

Anyone who knows me or has read any of the posts here knows I am a major fan of Star Trek in nearly all of its incarnations.  When I was in college, my roommates and I would watch WPIX at 11:30 every weeknight and have a contest to see who could identify the episode first during the one minute scene before the main credits.  I watched with the same college friends when Star Trek The Next Generation debuted. We didn’t like the shape of the new Enterprise (D that is) and thought it looked like a bathtub (I will say that I did learn to love the shape). We cheered when Wesley Crusher was stabbed with a bayonet and then depressed when it was all magically reversed (on the freak chance that Wil Wheaton is actually reading my blog, I respect your work now and am a huge fan, but I REALLY hated Wesley Crusher. I can, and do, separate the actor from the role). I’ve been to three different Star Trek conventions and have autographs from several cast members.

So, it’s safe to say…I like Star Trek.

As you can imagine, I’m very excited for the opening of Star Trek Beyond. I must say, I was hesitant because the early trailers were all action and no character. I’ve been intrigued by the more recent trailers that focus more on the characters than explosions.  And I’m now REALLY excited because it seems to have, at this writing, a very good score on Rotten Tomatoes.

If you have read my blog, you know that I submitted a story for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fan fiction contest earlier this year. Much to my disappointment, it was not selected.

So, in honor of the premiere of Star Trek Beyond, I give you my humble contribution to the Star Trek universe:

“If My Grandmother Had Wheels, She’d Be a Wagon”

The story takes place during the start of Star Trek II: The Search For Spock and of course, features Scotty.

So from one Trek fan to another, I hope you enjoy the story!

Live Long and Prosper!

Mike

Read More

What’s The Story, Morning Glory?

It’s been way too long since I’ve updated the blog, so I thought I’d give a little recap of my life, already in progress….

Book Signing

On June 11, I set up my little tent in the rain at the Sherburne Arts Festival to sell and sign my book. It was a typical Central New York day…it started with a thunderstorm, was cold enough for me to see my breath later in morning, and by the afternoon, was really hot.  And I actually managed to sell some books; making this infinitely more successful than my foray at Barnes & Noble. I was happy with how it went and got to talk to many people.

How’s The New Book Coming?

The answer to that is…slowly. The last few months have been brutal in my day job and I’ve found myself working late, some evenings, and the weekends. That means almost no time for writing and I’ve been too stressed out to focus (although I did get a couple of hours of writing time on Father’s Day!). My wonderful wife is sending me on a homemade writing retreat. In the Fall, I’m going back to a camp we stayed at last year near Woodstock and I’m going to have a cabin to myself for a long weekend and I just plan to write and write and write.  I’m so looking forward to a concentrated push on my novel so I can get the first draft finished.

But Why Can’t You Finish It Before the Fall?

Later this summer, we’re going on a cross country tour of colleges, with a number of stops along the way. I’m planning on turning this blog into a journal of our cross country adventure, so stay tuned for the “Great American Road Trip” edition of the blog.

Anything Else?

It’s summer band season, so I’m off playing in two area bands. Although you would think playing a concert of music you don’t see until the night you play it might be stressful, I love it and it almost always revitalizes me when I finish. It’s often hot and crowded, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Enjoy your summer and Happy Journeys!!

Mike

 

 

Read More