We hit all the major attractions in Chicago, most importantly deep dish pizza. Our waiter at Gino’s East recommended a good bar that was open on Monday night, so we went there afterwards for a few drinks. Ryan, our ex-waiter, turned up a few minutes later and we shared stories from the road. Turns out he’s about as well traveled as we are. It also turns out that being a waiter at Gino’s East is more lucrative than a lot of jobs in the Internet industry

We head out shortly for Minneapolis, MN, mainly to see the Mall of America and break apart the long East -> West migration. After that it’s a night at Mt. Rushmore and then four beautiful days at Yellowstone National Park. I checked the weather out there which suggested that we purchase large winter coats at the Mall. We have decided that should we get stranded and have to eat our limbs / road trip companions, it’ll make for really good blogging material. Lets hope it doesn’t come to that!

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Before Ben left for Miami he feared that he was coming down with something. I didn’t worry since I don’t get sick very often. Alas, two days later, I’ve got a case of the sniffles & a sore throat. The fact that it’s rainy in Chicago doesn’t help, same with the partying last night with my brother-in-law & friends.

Illness be damned, today I’m venturing into Chinatown. My plan: get a tasty meal and buy chopsticks. You see, when you only have room in your life for one utensil, you have to make it count. I believe chopsticks are the most versatile and easy to clean. I’ll keep you posted.

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The van is fully functional! The guys at Frank’s did a great job, and cost significantly less than Ben’s dad’s estimate. If they weren’t busy helping other customers out when I left I was gonna snag an honorary H.t.b.o.t.I. photo.  Oh well.

While I waited I checked out the Lincoln Park Zoo (left) & Conservatory (right). They’re both surprisingly big, and pleasantly free. I got the broken-spirit vibe from a lot of the animals at the zoo, but the plants seemed to be decently happy. Surprisingly the Conservatory was the more interesting of the two. After feeling pumped up about my superior intelligence and opposable thumb, I proceeded to place my $18/5-day transit pass into the dollar bill scanner. The words “don’t act like a monkey” were all too audible despite Ben not being there.

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I drove Ben to the airport this morning at 5:00am so that he could make his flight to Miami. Circumstances with his family dictate that he needed to be down there this weekend, and that I would be solo in the Windy City for 4 days. Now is the time, people, to toss suggestions for things to occupy my time

Since I was up early anyway, I drove down to Frank’s Auto Repair to get repairs started on our busted speedometer/odometer/cruise-control. Google My Maps + City Search proved pretty handy in finding a good place to go. The guys at Frank’s were down with H.t.b.o.t.I., so I knew they were cool. Having learned the hard way, I also plotted my next Internet hookup on My Maps, and am presently waiting it out at MoJoe’s Coffee Lounge. It’s pretty dead here. Hopefully they’ll view me as an asset, making the place look lively for the next, oh, 5 hours.

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We drove through Detroit yesterday due to a bit of a time constraint.  It was cool to at least drive through the city and see the GM building from afar.

Last night, we hung out with a good friend of mine, Kelley.  Apparently, Ann Arbor is a bit of a college town, therefore it is possible to find great drink specials on a Wednesday such as: $2 pitchers of Miller High Life.

By the end of the night:

• Alexi realized he had used the women’s bathroom at some point.
• We had played a few rounds of quarters.
• We apparently recruited a couple of college girls to play beer pong with us.
• We ordered “chips and cheese.”
• Our bill was less than $12.

Alexi is finishing up some work, then we’re headed to Chicago to get the van checked out.  Apparently, about 20 miles outside of town, the speedometer decided to stop working and the engine started sounding a bit…different.  We filled up with premium gas, which helped as it did with a knocking that was happening before.

This morning, we realized that the odometer is also not working, assumedly related to the speedometer.  So, hopefully we can find someone in Chicago to take a look at the van without screwing us over

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It was awesome to see family that I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

The first night, we hung out with my uncle Tony, aunt Verna, and cousin Danielle.  We had  one of the best pizzas ever and talked late into the night with Bob and his awesome stories.  Tony’s house is over a hundred years old and he’s put a ton of work into it and the property - I hadn’t seen it in about three years and it looks so amazingly different.  As soon as the barn is finished, I’m totally heading out there to break it in.

The next night, we hung out with my aunt Lisa, uncle Charlie, and cousins Emma and Evan.  Evan’s about four months old, so it was cool to see him for the first time.  Emma’s four years old and a little chatty Cathy.  If Alexi ever gets down about being single, he can remind himself that he’s the apple of Emma’s eye.

That night, we went to an apple orchard and picked apples for an hour or so.  Then, we had the most amazing donuts ever.  Krispy Kreme doesn’t even compare.  I ate three within the first five minutes we had them.  Later, Charlie cooked awesome steaks (there’s your good review ;), and we celebrated aunt Lisa’s birthday with an ice cream cake.

I also got to see my grandmother and the new additions to her house which look amazing.  I’m definitely glad she made it out to Lisa and Charlie’s for dinner and that I got to see her for lunch as well.

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Right now, we’re sitting at a place called the Linux Caffee. It’s just our speed. Coffee, bagels, Radiohead on the speaker box, and a stack of programming and OS books in the corner available for public consumption. Our van (and we) slept well last night in a busy street.

The dude behind the counter is a bit hippie-ish, but not to an uncomfortable or awkward degree. Their everything bagel with butter is, quite literally, the best bagel I’ve ever had in my entire life. And the laydeez that roll through here have been cute in that dorky, nerdy, fun, unpretentious way that we all know and love.

Speaking of women, hands down, Montreal has the best looking women I’ve seen in the entire world. We were told to expect the same of Toronto, but it’s not the same.

Montreal and Toronto downtowns are both really, really clean. Montreal carries itself with it’s touch of French; proper, prim, and a perhaps a bit rigid. Toronto feels more laid back like this cafe.

Both feel safe and are places that would be easy to live in. Apartment prices seem reasonable compared to similar cities in the US.

Both cities are amazingly bike friendly, which is rad.

All in all, the Canadian cities get my vote. I have a feeling that I’m really going to like Vancouver as well.

Stay tuned for “The Montreal Story.” French cuisine, late night boozing, and how train tracks and a GPS saved the day…night.

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Find yourself eating every meal in different ZIP codes catching glimpses of the Internet on the hot spot du jour? One way to make this lifestyle a little smoother is a handy little website called IP Weather. It’s a bookmark that will give you a 3-day weather forecast based off your IP address. Neat, huh?

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Looks like you can only plan so much! We were going to spend two full days in Toronto, but the drive from Glens Falls, NY put us in Niagara Falls, NY too late to see the actual falls. Determined to not miss it, we spent the night there and indulged in some Roy Rogers (a memory enhanced by childhood,) and a case of Molson. Neither were very kind to the digestive tract.

Waking up early so Ben could catch a client call, we headed over to the Falls, snapped some photos, and then went to the border to play Hide & Seek with customs agents. I guess you never get off easy when:

1. You claim a van as your residence.
2. You say you’re unemployed, for the sake of simplicity.
3. You have stamps in your passport from Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

Good thing Road Trip 2.0 is 100% legit!

We rolled into Toronto around 1:00pm only to discover that our Walmart’s parking lot has a 3 hour time limit. Plans fouled, we found parking on the street, and now are trying to get our sights in quickly. Ben’s down at the Hockey Hall of Fame, I’m soaking up local nerdiness at the Linux Caffe. Tonight we’re gonna party it up all crazy like, and tomorrow we roll out early for Detroit.

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Planning a trip into a new city can get tough. There’s all sorts of questions: What are you going to see? Where are you going to stay? How will you get around? One of the best tried & trusted tools of the traveler has been, no surprise, the map. But paper maps get folded, torn, lost, and above all else, are hard to share with other people. Even more difficult is collaborating on these maps with all your buddies.

Enter the “My Maps” feature on Google Maps. It’s a relatively small feature to the already superbly popular mapping program, but it provides a lot of bang for your buck. Basically you can use it to scribble on maps to mark areas & points of interest. We here at RoadTrip20.com are using it to figure out things like:

• Where all the Wal-Marts are
• Where the coffee & free WiFi is
• What sites we want to hit up
• Where the bars & restaurants are
• And when we park, where the hell we left the van!

Toronto is the first city we’ve really put it to use, but it’s already proving very helpful. I could have prevented myself from stealing WiFi in a urine-infested park if I used this in Montreal. Anyway, enough rambling. Check out our map if you’re interested!

A legend is provided after the cut.
Read the rest of this entry »

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