"Good sh*t brotha"

Dans said it best with the last thing I heard from him b4 leaving Cali!

Looking back at the posts along the way I realize there are some good stories I left out. I hope to cover some of them here and give some post trip after thoughts. - I know this is long overdue

For starters, how did I forget Dansbury's "touchdown run" in Cleveland. Check him out to the right leaving Browns stadium stiff-arming and high-stepping his way along to the endzone. He might've thought he was Westbrook but sure looked more like the big boy Leon Lett getting caught from behind.

I also want to point out the most disgusting looking hot dogs I've ever seen. We found these at a gas station in South Bend. I know not too many kids were around cus it was summer but that doesn't mean they had to keep the same hot dogs around since the end of the spring semester.

A major highlight of the trip was visiting some ball parks. Really a good way to get to know people from a city. There are some die-hard fans out there. As many of you know I don't really care much about baseball but I do enjoy drinking beer outside. And we definitely did plenty of that at the ballgames! Hard to say which was the nicest ballpark. Busch Stadium in St. Louis and AT&T park in SF are both relatively new and nice while Wrigley Field is just classic. We also got to see plenty of other baseball and football stadium that we didn't get a chance to watch any games at but cool to see nonetheless. The games themselves were entertaining with plenty of runs scored. And as I mentioned in an earlier post the home team won at every game so it was fun to cheer them on. That included a Giant win against Dans' Phillies...

I have to say this trip wouldn't have been as much fun if it weren't for Dans' persistence in going out. It may not be the way most people see cities and I'm sure we missed plenty of touristy stuff but we had alot of fun. Somehow we really did manage to be at the liveliest spots each night in whatever city we were in. Somehow we even managed to find decent nightlife on a Tuesday night in Kansas City! I mean I didn't even know there was nightlife in KC! But thanks to some friendly locals we found it, as was the case in every city we visited. If only Dans would've listened to me in Denver though! Even the process of finding a spot to go out made this trip fun. Looking for places to go out is probably how we ended up having the most conversations with locals - aside from convos with girls at the bars. Hope you haven't forgotten our most "interesting" local, Ms Nafesa. For those still wondering why she was so crazy here's an example. She jumped Dans at one point and clawed him. I'm sure he prob still has scars to prove it.

Somehow, up to now I left out one of the funniest events that occurred in the car. We both managed to stay awake the entire time in the car, keeping the driver entertained. However at some point, while I'm driving, Dans starts dozing off. to keep from falling asleep Dans all of a sudden opens the window and just starts yelling at the top of his lungs. I don't know if there was a car next to us at the time but I'm sure if there was they would've crapped their pants! I know I kinda did...

Here's the ride that took us along our journey through middle America to the west coast. For thise who've wondered we pretty much split the 3400 mile journey. Except I preferred to drive then have Dans barking orders on stuff to look up on the internet along the way. I heavily prefer driving then have to deal with looking for tix and hotel in the car.

After 8 days on the road and going out like rockstars every night I was very happy to end the trip in Napa. I can't really think of a better way to have ended the trip then having some wine poolside in Napa! Talk about relaxing...

Final Rankings:

1. Chicago

2. San Francisco

3. St. Louis

4. Denver

5. Salt Lake

6. Kansas City

7. Reno

8. Cleveland

Hope all of you enjoyed the blog and felt you were part of the journey. Thanks for following along. Glad we had the opportunity to share this awesome experience with all of you.

Best of luck to my counterpart, Michael Hunter Dansbury, with his MBA at Berkeley!!

"We're in a real state now"

Here we are in Cali. To some extent the trip is over. After 3400 miles or so we are at our final destination, Berkeley. Sure it was a long drive but alot easier and more fun then I would've ever imagined. Sure there were some rough/annoying times along the trip but there were definitely more good times. All in, a great and wonderful experience. But more on that later after I have some time to digest this trip. For now you just get the latest Berkeley news...



First of all, I gotta respond to Dans's post where he threw me under the bus. He kinda got it right about me fading but that pic was just a low blow. That night was about as tired as I've ever been... there's something about driving roughly 6-7 hrs a day then going straight out drinking for a week that starts to take a toll on you. Still, I was ready to go out but it takes D forever to do anything productive, leading me to doze off.

But nonetheless, here we are in Berkeley. What a long, strange trip its been. Dans saw the apt and met his first roommate for the first time yesterday afternoon....D you owe me yet another one !!! It was a quick move though and before we knew it we were at 7 eleven grabbing some beers (and a slurpee). By the way, I've never seen someone so happy to see a 7-eleven. I don't think anything has gotten him as excited along the trip then finding out he was going to live 2 blocks from a 7-eleven. Though we learned that they are not open 24 hours. And by hard way I mean they threw a heavy chain on the door as we were trying to walk in late at night. Apparently you can't grease your way in to 7-eleven in the middle of the night

We kept it real our first night in the Bay, bringing it old school with the Fordham crew. A special shout out to the Bay Fordham crew, Buffalo Joe and Tanya. Together with Dans' new roommate Brian we headed out to check out the Giants v Phils at AT&T Park. Once again the home team pulled through with a big win. Home team is a perfect 3-0 on our trip. But this was the first time I've heard a female announcer at a ball park.



After the game we checked out some bars around the stadium but apparently "there wasn't enough p*s around!" So after we left the post-game bar scene Joe took us to a real good German bar. Nothing like some fine German brews and old hags.

Interestingly enough, for some reason we had the pleasure of two lovely cougars joining us for dinner. I have no idea where these girls came from but they sat at our table. There's no way we were talking to them for more then like 5 mins before our table was ready and someone invited them to join us. Who does that?!?! Was it Dans? Maybe it was me...I guess it all fits in with the way this trip has been.



Apparently Dans and I kinda got at each other and spent half the night blurting expletives. What this was all about I have no idea and have a very vague memory of. But I guess after a week together we had some frustrations to get out. Or maybe D was just being dismissive again and pissed me off.


This is pretty much the last post for now. I can't wait to make some wine visits in Napa! Hopefully we will get another Dans post soon...


But until then, time for me to do what I do best and just lay out in the sun and have some drinks.
Stay tuned for the final recap including a ranking of all cities.

"RECAP!!!!" Alex is Fading!

Dans is Back, another post real quick….Please excuse Alex’s Denver post. He wanted to apologize if it was a bit dry, that’s because it was (the post was, NOT Denver). BUT I am giving props to Alex. While I sleep every night, he’s on the computadora hamming out updates half-tipsy of our shenanigans so I think we can give the kid some leeway. He’s been a CHAMP the entire time..

I will admit I was a bit hesitant about Denver. My man Allen Iverson didn’t last there too long and who can forget about the trouble Kobe Bryant found himself in a few years back. We all saw him sniffling at the press conference..it was classic)

We were glad to leave Kansas City and move onto Denver. For some strange reason KC was full of stray dogs. For those who saw the movie Cujo, it provided yet another reason to get tha heck out of dodge. Alex manned the wheel and was doing good for 5+ hrs, then can my turn..Either the cop smelled me from the moment I took the reins or its just non-kosher to drive a buck in Kansas. Lets just say the state of Kansas got a bit richer after our meeting. But come on, we’ve would have been naive if we thought we were gonna travel 3200+ miles without getting dinged at least once..

Then we battled that wet stuff in Colorado that made us pull over for a mini pow-wow..As you can see, I had a real good view of the road(and that’s when we were still driving)…Glad all cars made it out safe..

Now onto Denver!!! Wait.., quick sidebar..”Priceline.com” Anyone ever use this thing to book hotels? Well we have, and its proven to be “hit or miss”. Our first two spots were cool with the exception of the default king bed selection that you can’t change during the booking process. We all know Alex likes to cuddle, but I AINT THE ONE! I made sure to get upgrades to doubles once we got there. And I’m still not too sure what that smell was at the HoJo Inn, but the free breakfast was cool.

So back to Denver..Our spot was right across from Mile High Stadium. I heard they have a nice "club" too.It seems more and more cities have been developing this “Universal City Walkish” feel in their downtown area. It was cool, a bit cartoonish but cool..So of course we found the spot with “Call head or tails correctly” and your entire drink order is free. Unfortunately going 2 for 7 isnt exactly racking it in. All in all it was a good night, they shut it down @ 2pm there. The “Let Out”, def added spice to the night…

Then came Salt Lake City. There were no stops to see “six legged chickens” or “two headed donkeys” that Alex tried to mount. The only thing I previously knew about that place was “Stockton to Malone” and Mormon(I’m sure just my own ignorance). But Utah has these weird liquor laws, “memberships” or something related was previously required to enter bars. Who knows, I believe they are a bit more lax with entry but no ones know how to pour a drink right and I wont ramble about this point any further. I was just very frustrating. However I did learn that Salt Lake has extremes.

We witnessed the conservative side and the party/ rambunctious side(two fights broke out before midnight). Sandbar(the bar we visited) was def a vibrant spot, it was flooded with talent that seemed to be the jump-off” type. Apparently out of the 40% of people there born into the Mormon religion, only 10% practice. On our way out of Sandbar, we spotted a nice young couple “engaged” in plain sight behind a 4ft dumpster. If you get what I mean by “engaged”, then you can understand why I cannot upload any pictures that this time in post. Very funny…And that’s all folks!, im done typin..Time to go out again! I’ll hit u with my Reno-Berkeley recap in a few



Oh yea..we did pop a couple shots before we left..I must say my aim is pretty decent for a newbie..Alex, not so much but he does know how to handle himself..

“How bout I break your face” – Random drunk girl in Denver

Alex tried to put these on before we left..He was eyeing them the whole time..

"You smell that? It's Reno"

Yea that's right Reno smells and not in a good way. Part of the reason is b/c Dans has more grease on his hands then Jiffy Lube. Every night spot we tried going into had crazy lines but Dans was able to throw a little grease to get us in right away.

But as for Reno, it's definitely a poor man's Vegas complete with flashing lights, hilbilly degenerates and prostitutes. But hey, if it felt like Vegas we might as well try to go as if it was Vegas. Not sure where we ended up but before we knew it we're stumbling back to the hotel room at 430 in the morning. Hit up some good spots with the local crowd, managing to stay away from any girls that were too crazy. Granted I was somewhat intoxicated but thanks to a late night sugestion from some locals also had one of the best burgers I've ever had. We're talking massive greasy burger called an Awful Awful served with a mountain of french fries all for like $7.

I just want to point out that getting a gun in Utah is way to freakin easy! This was good for us though b/c Dans and I were able to complete our mission of shooting some guns - though we opted to stay away from the machine guns. Instead we decided on just going with a 9mm Smith & Wesson. We were both amazed at how easy it is to shoot such a weapon. I mean all you need is about $25 and be able to write your name. All we did was walk into the gun store/range and tell the guy we want to shoot some guns. Seriously, all he asked of us was to write our names and drivers license down on a paper and proceeded to hand us some 9s. There was no verifying any information we wrote. Not only that but people were walking around with guns in their pockets like nothing. Some old man who was buying a holster all of a sudden was just like "let me take out my Roscoe". Pretty frightening that people are just walking around with concealed weapons.



I got to say I was pretty nervous once I had that gun in my hand. Apparently so was Dans cus his other QoD was "don't shoot me!" My apprehension was escalated by the fact that the gun had no safety! Yea, that's right once that clip is in you're just a click a way from pulling a Plaxico. After I got the first shot off it was smooth sailing and fun to just unload. But no worries I have no intention of getting my own. Admittedly though, I didn't do so hot against the target. Dans however managed to get some bullseyes so watch out if you see him walking down the street packing heat.

Lastly, the drive from Salt Lake to Reno wouldn't have been complete without a chat with local law enforcement. This time I decided I'd stop and have a chat with a Nevada state trooper - he was NOT as nice as the Kansas trooper. We even decided to take the conversation outside and chat next to our cars. Its pretty nerve wrecking when a trooper asks you to step outside your vehicle. I had no idea what was in store for me but luckily he just wanted to make it easier to hear each other with all the passing cars. This may have been the first tiem Dans wasn't the one asked to step out of the car. At the end of the conversation I decided I would make a contribution to the state of Nevada. Hopefully we can make it through the last couple hundred miles without any more donations.