John Mellencamp really loves this state?

What a long Frigging day yesterday…not in a bad way, just long. Left Rochester at 10:45 AM, my trip odometer was at 409 miles, it now says 1,050 so I made six-hundred and something miles in 13 hours (about three hours of stopping at the places below). I’m in Indianapolis, IN right now. I was pretty wired for most of the long drive so I may be able to beat that today. Once I hit Indiana last night around 10:00 PM th e speed limit changed to 70 mph which in reality was more like 75/80 and if you look on a map at Route 70 in Indiana it’s as straight as the day is long. Perfect temperature to have the windows open for the majority of yesterday’s ride as well.

Was up pretty early and went to The House of Guitars in Rochester for a bit which was just amazing, the stuff they had in there. It does not look as big as it does from the outside. I’d love to go back there when I have money to drop on a guitar.















I was going to hit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but missed it as I spent a couple of hours at this place:
















I imagine I’ll remember seeing that before I would remember seeing Robert Plant’s dragon pants or whatever. I can’t believe how close you can get to the edge of it, and the railing isn’t really that high.

This hotel I’m in now, which I assume is a respectable chain (La Quinta), and a little more expensive isn’t that great. The door to my room doesn’t lock, aside from the chain… but I can’t really leave the room…although I just did for the Continental breakfast, which is basically a fucking scam. They trumpet the continental breakfast like it’s the best thing that can happen to you on the road. The reality is, at least for someone like me who doesn’t get there at 6:00 AM, it’s the stuff in your kitchen that you don’t want to eat for breakfast. So I just walked down there around 8:30 this morning thinking nobody would be there and perhaps I could get a little coffee and come back here and write. I walk down there having literally just got up, in the clothes I slept in: gym shorts and this bright-ass green t-shirt, no shoes on looking like I just shot a whole bunch of heroin. There are of course 3 families sitting down there and a couple of women who look like church people. I grab a Styrofoam cup, go to the coffee thing and push it and it’s empty! I look around a little, look at the people, put the cup back down on the counter with the little drops of coffee in it and come back here defeated. Fuck. I went back a few minutes later and it was full. I kind of felt like The Dude from Lemobowski walking down there. I do have my bathrobe with me, perhaps tomorrow I’ll go to the continental breakfast in my robe.

This morning I’m going to go to the Indianapolis Speedway Museum before hitting the road. I don’t really know the first thing about auto racing but my boss and some of my friends do so I’m sure they can explain what I end up taking pictures of and why it’s important! Heh. I think today’s goal is Springfield, MO. I looked at a map and kind of forgot Illinois existed. It appears I have to drive through a pretty substantial piece of it.

Things I learned yesterday:

People that visit Niagra Falls don’t know the unwritten rule that when you walk on a sidewalk, walkway, staircase that is crowded you walk on the right side. Just like on the road!

People from India LOVE Niagra Falls.

Niagra Falls is pretty ghetto aside from the actual waterfall area. You get to the town and it’s pretty run down.

The guitar solo section of Rush’s Freewill is awesome.

When driving to Los Angeles from Boston never look at a map of the whole United States when you are only in Ohio and feel like you’ve already been driving for five days. Fuck that’s depressing. I always make it a rule to just look at the maps of each state as it makes it seem like less driving.

Oh yeah, gas prices out here!