Day 3 & 4 August 16th & 17th

When I got up on the 16^th I decided to see if there was any place nearby that would take my Marriot points. Over the last few years whenever I could I would try to stay at a Marriot for conventions. Mainly because they always seemed the official hotel of most of the conventions I did but also because I was part of the Marriot rewards point program. I punch it in and find I have enough points for a 2-day stay a hotel on the beach and it will only cost $12.50. So I quickly booked a room before my luck changed and told Wilson the good news.

Wilson: Are you sure it will only cost $12.50.

Eric: Yeah thanks to the reward points.

Wilson: Well since you got us the deal I’ll pay the $12.50

Eric: (Just staring)

Wilson: Fine if you want to pay the 12.50 I won’t stand in your way. I was just trying to contribute.

Eric: (Still staring)

Wilson: Remember you invited me.

Eric: I’m trying to remember why.

So to kill some time we decided to hit the movies and kill 2 hours. We saw the movie “District 9” very enjoyable and very surprising. Several times in the movie I expected it to go left and it went right. For all the sci fi fans out there I would highly recommend it. I do have one complaint I felt that there was too much camera movement and scene cuts. It just constantly felt like he jumped from angle to angle of each scene. I know it’s supposed to create the feeling of a fast pace but to me it actually took a little away from the film.

After the movie we went to a Barnes & Noble because we love free Wi Fi. While at B&N Wilson got an email from one of his clients who needed some work done. Wilson gave him the whole spiel about being on vacation but said he would get it to him soon because freelancers can never turn down work. So while we spent most of the days checking out the boardwalk and eating Wilson spent his nights working to get the project done. Which worked out because I was getting a head cold and at night I was dying. Yeah that’s right I go on vacation and I get a head cold. So the first night that we are on the beach we turn on the TV while Wilson is working the first thing we hear is ”Hurricane’s are expected to hit land sometimes in the next day. “

Wilson: Is that for here?

Eric: No, Florida.

Wilson: Do we have to worry?

Eric: No but if you hear any loud noises and I drop to the ground and yell “get down!” You do it.

Wilson: Fair enough I mean I really Doubt

BOOM!

Eric: Are you serious?

For a hot second I thought it was thunder, but it was too rapid.

We pull back the shades and see they are just randomly setting of Fireworks in front of us. We sit and watch for 10 minutes me taking pictures from inside the room while Wilson sits on the balcony. (I’m afraid of heights.) It was actually pretty cool.

The next day we walk the boardwalk and enjoy some of the sights (the statues, the shore, and the girls in tight bikinis… Don’t judge me, I’m still a guy.) and we have some grub I notice something Virginia beach seems more geared to families, not a bad thing just an observation, and the really cool stuff is not actually on the boardwalk but actually 1 block over. I go to Atlantic City all the time and that is geared towards keeping you on the boardwalk. You go one block over and you are reminded hey I’m in Jersey. In Virginia Beach there are more little shops 1 block over.

The other weird thing is that Virginia doesn’t have an actual Boardwalk, a boardwalk is a walkway made up of wooden boards. This was concrete just bouncing the sun back up at you. I drank a lot of water walking just half the boardwalk that might also be because I am out of shape but I like to blame the sun.

Below is a list of places we went to:

Oasis Bar and Grill: a little hole in the wall but the food was awfully good for under 20 bucks for 2 people.

Laverne’s/Chix Café: one side of the place is restaurant; the other side is a bar. It was a nice ocean side restaurant where they played live music. While the music was good it was not really my style of music. The food was good and the service and ambience made the place very enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this place to visitors.

Captain George’s seafood buffet, this place is great. I recommend everyone go there, the place has so much good seafood; I didn’t try anything and not like it. Besides it being a good restaurant the place is gorgeous. It has 2 huge stained glass domes that are just amazing.

If you would like to see some pics go here.

Day 2 Saturday August 15, 2009

We had stopped for the night at a Motel 6 in Delaware. It was a small 2 bedroom place but it served our purposes, and after staying at the Pickwick* few places scare me. I will admit I was a little disturbed by the bed being right under the window. I kept expecting an axe murderer to just crash through or maybe Mercedes would come looking for her/my car.

The next morning we were off to Geppi’s Pop Culture museum www.geppismuseum.com. Now I was not sure what to expect, a lot of the museums I have been to that focus on comics have just been fancy comic shops but this was actually quite impressive. Each room seemed to be filled with more and more memorabilia. I mean it was insane. One of the coolest things was that the comic room had a display where you could read a digital copy of a couple of comics. It was a nice blend of history and technology. And since you can’t interact with the books directly this was a great substitute.

The museum is located above the Legends of Sports Museum and is next to Oriole Park at Camden Yards and because it was a game day admission was $1.00. I was so impressed by the museum that I didn’t argue too much when Wilson walked through the comic book room 3 times. I did eventually have leave a trail of Swedish fish out so he would leave the museum.

Now the great thing about going without a plan is you don’t have to be anywhere. You go when and where you want. The bad thing is you sometimes can’t get into some of the really popular sites. I wasn’t able to get into the Baltimore Aguarium so I am going to have to come back some day. Unfortunately while it was a beautiful day it was hot as hell so we went to a Panera to upload my first blog www.panerabread.com. Never been to a Panera restaurant before it’s another chain like Atlanta bread company but the food was pretty cool and the free wifi was great. Afterwards we walked around Baltimore. It is amazing seeing some of the old architecture being reused for corporate greed. The United Railways Electric Company is now being used as an ESPN Zone, a Barnes & Nobles and a couple of other places. I normally can’t deal with companies taking over historic sites like stadiums and having them renamed after banks but in this case I think it was a great idea. I haven’t had a chance to look it up yet but I would guess if these companies did not step in than the building would have been torn down and that would have been a shame.

After a while we decide to get some food and I have been seaching the Diner Drive in and Dives web site so I can find some good cheap places to eat and I found this place called Chaps Restaurant www.chapspitbeef.com. And this is the conversation that happened on the way.

Wilson: So what are we doing after we eat?

Eric: Well it’s still early we could head straight to Virginia or we could go to a bar or a club.

Wilson: You want to go to another strip club?

Eric: No I meant a dance club. Not that I’m opposed to a strip club but I know that if we hit another strip club we’ll have to go back home. Besides I already gave Mercedes the registration to my car she may have people on the look out for me.

As we are driving towards Chaps We see a huge sign for another Gold’s strip Club.

Eric: How many Gold’s clubs are there?

Wilson: Are you sure you don’t want to go a strip club.

Eric: I swear it’s the GPS.

Wilson: Yeah, right.

GPS: Arriving at Destination.

Wilson: We are not eating at a Strip club Buffet.

Eric: No, look the Restaurant is in a corner of the strip clubs Parking lot.

And the place was a dive but it was so good. I had this huge burger with BBQ sauce and Wilson had a rib sandwich. We both had cheese fries. Now the food is all cooked over charcoal and it tastes really good. I would highly recommend this place the only thing is you should know that it is on a porn section of the highway. From Chaps I could see 2 Porn Shops and a strip club… I was so happy. However we decided that we would just drive straight to Virginia. Near DC we realized another flaw with Chaps they don’t have a bathroom. Wilson had to piss like a racehorse but I also needed gas so I didn’t make him piss out the car window… Again.

We than headed to Virginia Beach which was about a 3 hour drive. And got there around midnight lucky me it looks like a biker convention in the area and all the cheaper hotels were booked but after several phone calls and begging we finally found a cheap room. So after driving and being tense and needing time to unwind I finally got to sleep at 3 in the morning, but I was in Virginia Beach. VACTIONS ROCK!!!

If you want to see my trip picks click here.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102167&id=528577688&l=6871c50621

* The Pickwick hotel was a hotel in San Diego I used a couple of times when I would visit San Diego. This place was a dive, as you walked by rooms you could swear you smell the scent of dead hooker permeating the air. I was often embarrased or proud to tell people I was staying there. It all depended on whom I was talking to. On the one hand staying at the Pickwick is not for the faint at heart and I slept with my knife in my hand. On the other if I found a female who was of low enough caliber to sleep with me freely I could not take her back to my room. Hell I would rather they thought I slept at the convention center than be at the Pickwick

Day 1 Friday August 14, 2009

So the initial plan was for me to wake up, go work out and than pick up my buddy Wilson. I have been trying to work out more often and figured if I got up at 7 I could be at the gym by 7:30 back by 8:45, the gym is around the corner from my house. After getting back from the Gym I am expecting an important phone call at 9, than be at Wilson’s around 10.  This plan was formed before I stupidly stayed up till 3 in the morning on Thursday.

So instead I wake up at 9 when the phone rings. Now fortunately for me (and my other buddy who I was providing a reference for.) I can wake up quickly when I want to. So when I spoke to the very cheery women and I was able to give a very favorable recommendation. In my head I am just saying “FUCK, FUCK, FUCK… I am so late!” Now the funniest part is the cheery lady starts feeling me out. It appears that she runs a staffing agency and started to ask me questions about my job past and plans. I had to nicely but quickly redirect back to my friend’s job reference and than finish the conversation.

So obviously I did not get to work out and was a mad man getting to Wilson but thanks to no traffic was able to be at his place at 10:10. So I’m only off my schedule by 10 minutes not bad right and I really am playing things by ear. I had said I would like to check certain things out but if I don’t I don’t and that just means I have to try for another road trip in the future. But the first place we were going to was the Brownstone diner and Pancake Factory in Jersey City. www.brownstonediner.com/ Now I had heard about this place from a friend and even saw it on the list of Locals on the Diners Drive in & Dives website so I knew I wanted to check it out but as with every time I go to jersey something went wrong. I plugged in the address into my GPS and it said we should be there in 30 minutes. Now I knew with NY/NJ traffic it could be more but we where stuck in gridlock for over an hour. Here are some of the things being said in the car as we are stuck in traffic.

Wilson: You know Alitha is right.

Eric: What about?

Wilson: “A Hungry man is an angry man.”

Eric: So I guess you are hungry?

Wilson: Yeah. I haven’t eaten all day.

Eric: What are you going to have when we get there?

Wilson: FOOD! I DON’T CARE WHAT JUST FOOD! THE WAITRES IS GOING TO COME TO US AND I’M GOING TO TELL HER YOU GO BACK THERE, TAKE WHAT EVER IS READY AND BRING IT TO ME, I’LL EAT IT!!! THEN AFTER THAT I’LL ORDER MY MEAL!

Eric: Stop making me laugh I can’t see straight.

Wilson: LIKE IT MATTERS! WE HAVE BEEN IN THE SAME SPOT FOR THE LAST 20 MINUTES!

Eventually we do get moving and make it into Jersey City while we are heading there along the way an interesting tidbit of info comes up

Wilson: Hey, I know where we are going?

Eric: Yeah The Brownstone Diner.

Wilson: No I have been there.

Eric: Really?

Wilson: Yeah I just didn’t remember the name; it was after one of the Parties.

Eric: A party at D’s

Wilson: Yeah

Eric: No wonder you couldn’t remember the name, after one of D’s parties your lucky if you remember your way home.

Wilson: That only happened once.

We finally get to the diner and all is right with the world. The food was excellent the service was very friendly and I had no complaints. We both ordered the King Combo 3 stacks of Pancakes (I had chocolate chips, Wilson had regular), 3 eggs (Scrambled for me over easy for Wilson) and a steak) It was so good. I could have just gone home and slept after that. But we traveled on. I may or may not have taken a little nap while I was driving.

When all is said and done and after all the traffic we hit we don’t get to the Franklin institute till 4:00 I only took pictures of outside because the exhibit we were going to see did not allow cameras, kind of a jip but the exhibit was really cool. They had a retrospective of the Star Trek exhibit and had all these props from the show. They even had a recreation of the Star Trek: The Next Generations bridge. Obviously I had to drag Wilson out of there kicking and screaming.

We stopped at a small cheap restaurant cause we were actually still full from “Breakfast” at noon. And than cause we were in Philly we stopped of at the Gold Club a gentlemen’s club. The Gold Club has become a part of every Philly trip we take because usually when we are in Philly its for a comic convention and after a bad con we needed to console our selves. It was actually quite nice to go just to have fun.

My philosophy on strip cubs is that it’s nice harmless fun you basically walk into this place and all the girls want to talk to you. Now I know they are only trying to make a living and put themselves through college (At least that’s what most of them keep telling me.) so the attention is fake, but so is the “It’s a small world” ride in Disney land. It’s fantasy and as long as no one is getting hurt no problem. I’ve been to a few clubs where all the girls were high or drunk and that actually made me uncomfortable. I keep thinking they don’t do this because they want to. They do this because they have to but here the girls are just very friendly.

Now we are having a good time but I know I still have another half hour to drive to go so we head out at around 11:00.

Conversation after we left:

Wilson: You know the strip is starting to come true.

Eric What do you mean?

Wilson: Every time we go to a strip club and you leave all the girls know your name.

Eric: I’m friendly.

Wilson: Yeah, How much did you spend?

Eric: I think I signed over my car to a stripper named Mercedes. She was topless talking to me and I don’t remember much after that.

So After I borrowed my car back from Mercedes We were on our way to a Motel 6 to crash for the night.

To see all my pics go here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101863&id=528577688&l=67d0e54280

So it Begins

I am starting this blog to keep tack of my road trip starting tomorrow morning. Recently I got laid off from my job and realized I will have to start looking for a new one soon. With the way the economy is now I might have to settle for a crappy job just to have a steady pay check. But before I do that I decided to take a road trip.

Now I will admit I do have a rough idea where I am going but I don't know where I will end up or even when the trip will end. My initial plan is to go down to Virginia beach by way of Philadelphia, Baltimore & DC. I have never really been free to travel for pleasure, most of the places I have gone have been for my comic book company and while I enjoyed them I really can't say I got to be a tourist. So I have decided I will take this road trip go see a few sites and eat a lot of food. I am kidnapping my business partner tomorrows and I will be braving the hell that is New Jersey so that we can get to Philadelphia. From there who knows where we will actually go.

Just a warning, I will try to update this every night or morning with pictures of the prior days journey depending on Internet service.