Another Day on the Road
It was only a couple of days ago that I almost passed out after a long drive so this time I made sure to stock up on some real food (besides grapes) for the nine hour drive to St. Louis.
There is a restaurant called Seasons 52 that is proving to be quite the life saver for me on this tour. Seasons 52 is a restaurant that I discovered while in Tampa for Spring Training this year. It serves healthy food at relatively low prices and is always good. I found out that it is actually a chain and has locations in many of the cities that I will be driving through. Their shrimp flatbreads may become my driving meal.
I dropped by their Atlanta location and picked up a flatbread for the road and was on my way.
What I listened to in the car:
Doug Loves Movies
Tigers/Twins game
Comedy Bang Bang
Todd Barry Podcast – Janeane Garofalo
In yesterday's post I outlined how I scheduled this tour. There is something that I did not plan for which has become a life saver for these long drives. Day baseball. I did not set it up this way, but nearly every one of my long drives has been helped by the Tigers playing a day baseball game. That is three hours of my drive that flies by while listening to the game.
Before I left Georgia I made sure that I stopped at a fruit stand off of the highway to pick up a basket of peaches. I figured I should probably bring some variety to my road food (I do not want to get sick of grapes just yet).
I hit a bit of traffic once I hit Manchester, Tennessee when I realized that I was driving though the last day of Bonnaroo. It looks like I missed a great party.
Who kept me awake while driving:
My buddy Rindler
My mom and dad
My sister Shikha
I got to St. Louis around 9 PM and checked into my hotel. This is the stretch where I don't have any friends in the area so I am staying in some hotels. I have been using Hotwire to find the cheapest places which has worked out pretty well so far. It is a bit of a risk, but all I really need is a bed and good wifi. I felt a lot better after this drive than I did after the Miami to Atlanta debacle. I ordered a thin crust pizza from a place called Imo's Pizza before hitting the sack.
The drive was a little nicer today as I got to see some greenery and mountains, but thus far the terrain has been flat. Apart from the storm in Florida I have had sunny skies on the road. The radar still says that there is rain coming so hopefully the Cardinals game doesn't get postponed. I'll find out tomorrow.
Travel Stats
Miles Traveled: 569
Time in Car: 9 hours 7 minutes
Avg. Speed: 62.1 MPH
Gas Money: $91.05
Gas Price: 3.559, 3.999
Gallons Filled: 14.345, 10.003
Exercise: None
Sleep Time: 6 Hours 30 min
Bottles of Water: 11
Bathroom Stops: 6
Traffic Jams: 1 (10 minutes)
Food Eaten: Shrimp flatbread from Seasons 52, peaches, think crust pizza from Imo's Pizza, grapes
Total Money spent today $200.19
Cumulative Miles through today 3,230
Cumulative Time in car through today 56 hours 7 minutes