john amato

i’m still playing catch up after our road trip. i’ve exceded my standard 1 week statute of limitations on blog posts, but this was such an epic trip i thought i’d extend it slightly.

the total trip spanned over 5,000 miles and average 69.4 mph. we took the following path: from t-town to kansas city on new years eve. cory ryan’s parents let us stay with them. we arrived too late to stop at jack stack on our own so they picked some up for us (free meal count: 1). the cheesy corn is my favorite and the leftovers fed us on the car ride the following day (free meal count: 2).

we got out early after breakfast, eggs sunny side up (free meal count: 3) and started towards denver. the previous day we decided to drive straight through the night to scottsdale with a brief stop in denver to see the lorenz’s. we made it to denver just in time to see the second half of the rose bowl. dr really enjoyed hanging out with lizzie and j-lo who provided us with our first sale and fourth free meal of the trip.

the drive to scottsdale from denver was quite adventurous. we drove through the night last year to new orleans and that was horrible. with a good nights sleep behind us and a short reprieve in denver we did pretty well. the drive hit us hard when the sun refused to rise in the early am. the final 4 hours were filled with gramma-like hallucinations.

the sullivan’s place in scottsdale was pretty decent. although i’m still bitter dr took the big bed. for the next four days dr and i hung out, watched too much mtv and espn, and gave each other spaniards. on sunday we actually did move around and went to a dude ranch. it was on the drive home that a coyote ran in front of my car, paused, and expired. i’m just now getting over it. that night we went to dinner with the sullivan’s for our fifth free meal of the trip. that’s 5 in 5 days.

the game on monday was  a lot of fun. we went out there with the hope that we might be able to sell some shirts in the parking lot. when we got there, there wasn’t really much of a crowd so the shirts weren’t sold outside of a few just sports stores. with the supply for tickets greatly outweighing the demand, dr and i got tickets for $20 each.

the game was great. we sat in the very top row. every seat had a bag of tostitos and salsa on them. fortunately, since the cost of tickets and parking exceeded our daily budget, some of our neighbors didn’t show so we had a few extras chips (free meal count: 6). cause sometimes it’s just nice to have chips.

the following day we began our surprise trip to new orleans. we made a brief stop in el paso to rest our driving legs. dr’s friend lives there and her mom made some delicious tacos (free meal count: 7). we ate 7 apiece. the drive from el paso to san antonio was desolate. the speed limit was 80 during the day, 65 at night. at one point during dr’s slumber, the border patrol pulled us over and found nothing suspicious about our mustaches.

we arrived in new orleans with a few hours to sleep at mike fischer’s before he treated us to dinner (free meal count: 8). the real purpose of driving to new orleans was to stop in katie’s classroom in the goula unannounced. we did that on friday and she was quite surprised. her class is awesome and we treated them to extra recess. that night we went out in the gulf of mexico and pascagoula river (treasure it) on joe’s boat. i can’t wait to go back and visit the islands they keep talking about. and to see this man again.

we returned to new orleans friday night for brother john drew updike’s gig. he is the mayor of tulane. his ladies loved the stache. his shows are an experience. we finished the night at our favorite spot, the dungeon. it’s still the best spot in the quarter.

prior to our visit to the goula, we met fr chambers on thursday night for dinner. our final free meal, number 9 of the trip, was our finest. he treated us to ruth’s chris steakhouse. it was the best steak i’ve ever had.

sometime friday night we were talking with gym and he convinced us to stay at his place in cincinnati saturday night. so early saturday morning, we somehow got out in time to make it to the final two quarters of the cincinnati cyclones hockey game. we spent the rest of the night hanging out with gym and mogen.

this was an unreal trip. i really hope dr doesn’t get a job so he goes to grad school next year so we can make the trip again.

as always, you can check out all of our photos on flickr. they’re sweet. like us.