We found it!

The desert!

Kernal and the bear love Albequerque

mountains made of sand

There are these really cool mountains made of red sand and rocks all
along the road. There is also a lot of grass and shrubs, which flies
right in the face of what we expected to find in the desert.

The Land of Enchantment

I swear that's what the welcome to New Mexico sign says.

Biggest Cross in the Western Hemisphere

The signs claim that it is an extra spiritual experience.

Virginia may be for lovers ...

... but Oaklahoma is for wind turbines.

sonic burger

Sonic has tons of ads in Red Sox games but no stores in New England.
I finally got to one for lunch today but I think Colussus was the most
excited. Look at that smile!

Dallas

Pulled over in Louisiana

Doing 77 in a 70 zone - lame.

when in new Orleans

Do eat some gumbo.
Don't drink whiskey sours.

Only 472 more miles to Dallas.

naw'lins

the gps says we are fine

We don't really know where we are. Do you recognize this highway?

dinner in Memphis

Our waiter gave Spoony ribs with training wheels after we told him we
were from Boston. This was some damn good food and I now know what
southern hospitality is.

Arkensas

More flat than Illinois.

gateway arch

Can you find Colossus?

Amazing

The sign says it all...

Almost at St. Louis

Illinois countryside

One hour outside of chicago and there are endless fields and huge sky.

This morning when we left Chicago a motorcade with police escort
passed us. One of the SUVs had two secret service agents looking out
the back at us with large guns. Spoony wanted to cut them off but I
talked him down.

cubs game

First row, upper deck, third inning.

Chi Town

We made it! Probably about an hour ago actualy. We checked into the
hotel, which is quite swanky for not a lot of money. Thanks Hotwire.
We didn't stay long in downtown because we left right away to make a
Cubs game.

onward to Chicago

after getting almost no sleep in our sketchy hotel, Spoon and I left
at 5:30am to make Chicago by one to see a Cubs game. I took a nap and
woke up to Indiana farm land. It is about 9:00am

Entering Pennsylvania

I missed the sign...

Take that New York!

Don't Fall Colossus

We just finished up with our side trip to Niagra Falls. After making a slight detour to the Niagra Falls Power and Recreation Department due to bad directions by a mister Tom T, we arived at Niagra Falls. We snapped a few pictures and we are continuing to a Knights Inn in the Clevland area.

new york

You can't tell but that is the New York welcome sign. It is noon (the
iPhone is putting weird time stamps).

departure

We are leaving! First stop, Newton!

Where are we going?

(click me)

Here is the schedule that we have planned for the trip:

Morning of Saturday Aug 23rd - Start of the trip!
Aug 23rd - Cleveland OH
Aug 24th - Chicago IL
Aug 25th - Memphis TN
Aug 26th - New Orleans LA
Aug 27th - Dallas TX
Aug 28th - Albuquerque NM
Aug 29th - Vegas Baby!

Keely, C-line, Jeff, and possibly a few others are going to meet us to hang out in Vegas for the weekend. After that, Simon is flying back to Boston (Boo work!) and Keely, C-line, Jeff, and I continue onto LA that Sunday.

Aug 31st - Los Angeles CA
Sept 1st - Sannnn Frannnncisco CA

There is also a link to a gmaps version of the trip in the sidebar on the right. If your curious about what highways we are taking or the travel time between cities, all that info is there.

We're going to Vegas and we need your help!

As I'm sure you've all figured out, Spoony, Colossus, and I are going to Vegas. We'll be hitting up 7 cities in 7 days and I hope to be doing all sorts of fun things during that time. That's where you all come in. If anyone has been to any of these places (or any place in between them) and knows about something fun, interesting, or both, let us know! We like fun and interesting things. The two things we're planning on doing currently are seeing the Cubs play in Chicago and stoping by Graceland.

We're also looking for fun things to track along the way. A good example of this would be the price of High Life, a bad example would be the price of gas. If you've got anything let us know.

In conclusion, book mark this site, check back often, and leave lots of comments.

Edit: The list of cities is Cleveland, Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas.

Introduction

Friends, Family, Colleagues, Welcome to Colossus Goes to Vegas.

In the spirit of moving out to the west coast I decided to partake in the cliche, but still awesome, tradition of a road trip. My good friend and roommate Simon also thought doing a road trip would be a good time so he quickly signed up for a spot in the car. When good times are to be had there is one member of our apartment that never likes to be left out. My over sized stuffed panda that I won from a carnie game on the infamous Wildwood New Jersey boardwalk, Colossus.

Planning for the road trip consisted of brainstorming a few places that Simon and I wanted to see and connecting the dots. This laid back planning led Simon, Colossus, and I to the ambitious task of hitting up Chicago, New Orleans, and Vegas all in one weeks time. After we figured out the route and the players in this road trip debacle, we aptly named our road trip Colossus Goes to Vegas.

Hopefully, after reading this introduction you think this trip is going to be as awesome as we do. Look back to this blog frequently because we plan updating it with our trip details over the next week and then posting multiple times during the day when we are actually on the trip. Also, comment early and comment often. We'd love to hear what you guys think about everything.

Myself, Colossus, and Simon
(from left to right)