Reverse Cannonball

Reverse Cannonball: Chicago to NYC.

I’m a natural early riser, no matter what time zone I find myself in (mind you, I haven’t been west of Hawaii or east of Germany, yet. So have not put that concept to a rigorous test!) and get up before dawn to pack and get going. The above photo is a tad overexposed, but if you look you can tell it is pre-sunrise. I love being in big cities in the time before sunrise, when the skies begin to lighten. The walk to the garage from the hotel is eerily quiet and almost no people or vehicles are around. I hit the road south and east around the southern end of Lake Michigan. These are roads I have not seen since my childhood. My memory of this place is of an extreme industrial zone. That is no longer the case. The smoke stacks and sprawling industrial plants have largely been removed. There are trees again. You can see the lake and the Chicago skyline. A few factories still exist, but it is a dramatically different landscape now.

Gasoline stop on the Indiana Toll Road. Spot the price oddity.

The car is down to about fifty miles of range, so I stop to fill up the tank. As I peruse the Trump-Slump Prices I note an “error in my favor” and fill the tank with 93 Octane, which due to someone’s fat fingers is .20¢ less per gallon than the regular premium 91 Octane. We don’t ever see high octane gasoline out west because of our altitude, and seeing it cheaper than 91 is something I have no issue taking advantage of!

Maybe Indiana, Maybe Ohio. Your guess is as good as mine.

I roll through the plains and forests of the Midwest, as the topography, and flora becomes more and more “eastern” as I progress. This kind of driving is where cruise control is your friend and this car’s “distronic” adaptative cruise control is a delight. I’m enjoying listening to podcasts or music and letting the car maintain distance from the traffic ahead of me. I am too much of a “driver” to desire a hands-off or worse yet, an eyes-off kind of system but I like this system for Interstate cruising. I just run at or near the speed limit, firmly in the right lane. Watching everything, but letting my feet rest. I have the distance setting as far ahead as it goes to the ever so slight deceleration felt in my “butt dyno” signals my brain that it’s time to change lanes and deploy my right foot to move around a truck or slow car. Execute the pass, get back to the right, and continue.

I guess Ohio doesn’t acknowledge the existence of its eastern neighbor.

As I approach the eastern end of Ohio I note the freeway signs don’t name any city in Pennsylvania, but instead call out New York City instead. I guess this road bypasses the larger ones such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but it seems odd to me.

I don’t make many stops to be honest, on this whole trip. Mostly just rest areas for bathroom breaks. I brought along several days worth of “clean” snacks (ones that won’t make a mess on me or in the car. My sister just had it detailed!) and just munched away rather than stopping. Other than the stop in Chicago to see Chris, and my flight home, I don’t have any fixed itinerary. I drive until I feel tired, then book a hotel far enough ahead to round out my day, then stop for the night. So my only stops are hotels, gas stations, and rest areas. Lots of rest areas. At one of them in western Pennsylvania the signs warn not to drink the water. I turn on a tap and find out why. Ugh. Not very appealing looking water! Thankfully I also brought along many bottles of things to drink and have replenished the supply as I drive.

I book a hotel in Clearfield, PA for the night from a late afternoon rest area stop. I check in, and see a branch of my gym nearby so I go there for a workout. As I’m at the gym I’m listening to the second round playoff game between Philly and Carolina. It sounds exciting so I decide to find a sports bar to watch it.

I end up at this place called ‘Legends’ and sit at the bar, talking hockey with a guy two seats down. Neither of us have a team in this game but it goes into overtime, which is always great hockey. Turns out the guy is the owner of the bar and he convinces me to have dinner, so I order a Rueben sandwich. Quite good! Before he leaves he gives me a Pittsburgh Penguins drink koozie!

I get a late start in the morning because I don’t have much distance remaining. Just the eastern half of Pennsylvania, a bit of New Jersey, and then into NYC. In fact I am late enough to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the hotel! As I get closer to NYC traffic and construction get thicker. My last rest area stop is a nice hill overlooking north New Jersey:

After I descend I drop into the snarling traffic of NYC, even on a Sunday morning. Ugh. I miss an exit at one point but recover. Eventually winding my way towards the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. Along the way I spot a place that I swear was featured in the opening credits of ‘The Sopranos’. See if you recognize it too:

Now it is just a matter of traversing a few surface streets to deliver “Babs” to its new owner. Not without some terror because drivers in NYC are nothing like drivers in the Pacific Northwest! I swear I have multiple close calls with cars, people on scooters, and double-parkers blocking before I finally arrive.

Nick and his new car, along with the delivery boy.

(More to come)

Reverse Cannonball, days 2 & 3

Left Green River Wyoming at dawn and drove through Wyoming and all of Nebraska stopping in the Omaha area. Just me, and the big trucks rolling down I-80. Weather was perfect. Clearly a big snowstorm happened a day or two before, but now just a mix of high clouds or sunshine. It sprinkled on me once or twice the first day. I knew this was the last of the 80 MPH speed limits, as the landscape changed from “western” to “midwestern”. From Omaha to Chicago I had nice clouds keeping the sun from being too intense. Stopped to hit the gym in Des Moines. Then rolled on across Illinois, where I met Christopher for dinner. We went to a BBQ restaurant for some REALLY good BBQ (something impossible to get in the PNW!) He had a pulled pork sandwich and I had a Rib & Sausage plate. It was delicious and the company was excellent. Always nice to see him.

The hotel near his work where I usually stay was charging over $300/night for some reason, so I found a much more reasonable hotel, that happened to be downtown. He met me there after work and I drove him to the BBQ place and then home where we exchanged gifts (some LED lights for his bike from me, and he gave me some gifts he brought home from Japan for his Brother Nick, and his wife Izzy whom we are seeing in Portland next weekend.)

Slept like a log and planning on another dawn departure. Shooting for somewhere in Pennsylvania for Saturday night.

Sears Tower from the walk to my hotel from the parking garage.

I’m sitting in a pre-dawn Diner in Green River, Wyoming eating an omelette waiting for a little daylight before I hit the road again. Yesterday I left home in Mom’s old Mercedes heading east. The eastern two-thirds of Oregon is all US20, which is a two-lane 55MPH highway that traverses the northern edge of the Great Basin, before going up and over into the Malheur River canyon to Ontario, Oregon where it meets the superslab of I-84. It’s a fun road for high-speed dashes, but honestly after my deer encounter in the BluBaru a few weeks ago I’m being cautious with this car and ride the speed limit. I know that once I hit the Interstate it will all be 80MPH speed limits until I hit Nebraska a thousand miles east.

The rest of the day is riding this car’s exceptional “Distronic” Cruise Control on the Autobahn through Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Some traffic through Boise and Ogden, but otherwise just me and the big trucks. I take advantage of the new Costco in Nampa, Idaho to fill up the tank. But otherwise only stop for potty breaks (including two at those empty “Ranch Exit – NO SERVICES” exits one finds out here in the west.

I have driven these roads many many times since the mid-80s so I am very familiar with their character in every season. I know that once past Rock Springs there is a many hundred miles of nothing so book a room in Green River before sundown and sleep a good nine hours.

My next adventure…

A few weeks ago I did my little sister a favor and helped her sell my mother’s Mercedes-Benz E350 wagon. It is a 2012 car, and my father bought it for her new. He kept every single record, including the Munroney window sticker, maintenance records, and even his notes from when he called the dealer to research the model. My mom drove the car until 2019 or so. I even drove it when I visited her in the assisted living facility she spent her last years in. My other sister lives about 40 minutes away so my driving of that wagon was limited to a shuttle trip on Houston freeways between those two spots. It sat for a few years while mom rarely drove it. In fact on one of my visits I bought a trickle charger for the car’s battery because it wasn’t getting enough use.

My little sister bought the car from mom a few years before mom died and she used it for commuting in Seattle until very recently. She asked me about selling it. I even considered buying it as my ski car (the Brown Subaru Outback that at one time belonged to Nick) was reaching its EoL with close to 300k miles. But I ended up buying that Blue Subaru you see in other posts. I’m glad I didn’t because this Merc is WAY too nice to suffer being my ski car and dog hauler!

It has very low miles and has been meticulously maintained by my father and my sister. I suggested to her that we sell it on BringATrailer, because I know these E-class wagons have a cult following and that platform would be the best place to have them find it.

Boy was I right.

The auction was a best possible result, in much the same way as when I auctioned my Dad’s 280se 3.5 almost a decade ago. Multiple bidders interested in the car and a result that beat our expectations.

Caught up in the enthusiasm of the auction I offered to drive the car to the auction winner, no matter where in North America they happened to be. At that moment the two highest bidders were in Washington and Colorado, so not really a big deal for me. A one or two day drive respectively. Well, of course the winner is on the east coast. So this week, I’m driving mom’s Mercedes almost coast to coast.

I’m planning to leave at dawn Wednesday. The plan is to drive only during daylight, and only have two planned stops: one in Chicago to see my son Chris, the other at the destination when I deliver the car to its new owner. I have a ticket to fly home early Monday, which is refundable/flexible should I have any issues.

But feel free to follow along. If I can find all the components I will set up the Timelapse rig. I will also post pics and stories on Instagram @chuckgoolsbee. Join me!