Long road trip advice

[Salhus]

Alright, so a buddy of mine and I are driving from Savannah, GA to Los Angeles, CA. We're leaving in a week. Our route will take us through the big cities of Atlanta, St. Louis, Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Phoenix. As baseball fans, this trip has been a dream of ours as kids. We'll be seeing the Braves, Cardinals, Royals and maybe Diamondbacks,<O</O


I've never been on this long of a road trip before, so I need any advice/tips.<O</O


This may be the only time I'll ever be in these cities, so I want to eat some good food. <O</O


Any recommendations on what restaurants to try? Preferably BBQ..really want to try the famous barbecue food of the midwest.


Thanks <O</O

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Long road trip advice

If you want great food and BBQ too, you need to add Chicago to that list. But other then that, wear loose clothes, have a ton of change and singles. And some cash most definitely.

I found out last year traveling that not all rest areas have gas stations that take credit card or debit card. Plus not all toll booths will have change either, so it is best to have a lot of singles and quarters.

[cardswin2006]

Re: Long road trip advice

You can get some GREAT bbq here in St. Louis. One place that I hear is excellent, but I haven't had a chance to try yet, is Pappy's Smokehouse. It's downtown, not terribly far from Busch Stadium (not walking distance, though). I hear you need to get there early in the day as they only make so much of everything, so they tend to run out of certain meats by the end of the day.

Definitely get out of the car to see the Arch, although it's up to you whether it's worth your time/money to take the tram up to the top. The museum inside is fairly forgettable, but then again, I've been there a dozen times.

Have fun at the Cardinal game. I am extremely biased, but to me, there is no better way to experience baseball than a warm summer night in St. Louis with the sea of red in the stands. They call St. Louis "Baseball Heaven" for a reason.

[cardswin2006]

Re: Long road trip advice

By the way, if you find yourself traveling through Memphis on the way, I would recommend the Rendevouz or Corky's. Rendevouz is a legend down there and it lives up to expectations.

Also, back to St. Louis, if you like ice cream and the "Route 66" thing (hey, you are driving cross country, right?), go to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard off Chippewa (about 10 minutes west of downtown). Best ice cream (or frozen custard) I've ever had. Anywhere. It's an historic landmark and a walk up stand with a dozen or so windows. You won't miss the place as people literally line up into the street to get some (but the wait is no more than 10 minutes).

I usually just get a chocolate "concrete," which is soft creamy ice-cream whipped into the cup to where it withstands being held upside down. But there are a lot of little specialty sundaes and concretes that are well worth the trip as well.

[buckeye02]

Re: Long road trip advice

If you want Bar-B-Q stop here in Memphis. All of these family owned Bar-B-Q places are great and some of the best in the world.

[cardsfan2222]

Re: Long road trip advice

Definitely try Ted drewes in st. Louis. The burnt ends at Arthur bryant's in kc are great as well.

[Watson]

Re: Long road trip advice

have this song on repeat

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[Salhus]

Re: Long road trip advice

Memphis is a bit out of the way, but still a possibility.

With St. Louis and Kansas City I'd like to try the best food because not sure if I'll ever be back there.

[buckeye02]

Re: Long road trip advice

Memphis is a bit out of the way, but still a possibility.

With St. Louis and Kansas City I'd like to try the best food because not sure if I'll ever be back there.

Memphis should be on the way if you pick up 20 west towards Birminham, AL....then 78 towards Memphis. St Louis is about a 5 hour drive from Memphis.

Ive driven all across the U.S. I hope you're not picking up Nashville after you go through ATL. That would be a longer drive.

[shnuskis]

Re: Long road trip advice

In Albuquerque I would stop at Sadie's. Mexican food, but you have to have that as you pass through the southwest. Fantastic.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: Long road trip advice

When you get to Phoenix, its about the mexican food. I can point you to a place right by the ball park, its in the ghetto but everyone goes there before the game, best tortillas in town! The place is called Carolina's.

Since you will be in the downtown area, you can also check out Lolo's chicken and Waffles.

There are a ton of good food spots but all depends how far you want to drive and what areas of the Valley you're going to be in. BBQ is not great here so I don't recommend finding a bbq spot.

Pretty much Yelp your way man, yelp never fails to score the right spots.

[PharmaMan]

Re: Long road trip advice

Advice I would also give is make sure you don't eat "risky" foods that might not sit well with you. E.G. if eating spicy food makes your lower GI unsettled, you may want to avoid that since gas station restrooms are not fun. Also, make sure you bring lots of deodorant and air fresheners since all that time in the car will tend to make you pretty rank. Heh.

I myself when be going on a half-country road trip the first week in July. A buddy of mine here in New York is going to drive out to Chicago to bring back some furniture and items that his wife has had out there while working for the past couple of months. (She just had a project that she needed to be out there for, and they have a little house just outside of Chicago that she was in for the time period so that my buddy didn't have to leave his job and work remotely for a couple of months). So he'll be driving out there in a U-Haul and a couple of friends of mine will be picking up a rental car and making the 13 hour drive or so out to Chicago. We figured it was cheaper to rent a car and pay for gas then for all of us to get a round trip flight.

We plan on staying for a full week and staying at their place for the time, then helping him pack up before we drive back. Will be my first road trip of that length, as my previous high was a 6 hour drive. Heh. I just got back from Chicago a few weeks ago from a business trip, so it will be nice to be out there and not have to work the whole time.

[cardswin2006]

Re: Long road trip advice

Road trips are a blast and I prefer them to flying. You just don't get a sense of how far you're really going when you fly. It's like you get on the plane and boom, you're there. Plus you get to eat at the greasy spoon diners in the middle of nowhere, see signs for the World's Largest Covered Wagon (no joke, btw, I pass it all the time between Chicago and St. Louis off I-55). The trip is half the fun! [/Clark W Griswold fanaticism for road trips]

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Long road trip advice

Advice I would also give is make sure you don't eat "risky" foods that might not sit well with you. E.G. if eating spicy food makes your lower GI unsettled, you may want to avoid that since gas station restrooms are not fun. Also, make sure you bring lots of deodorant and air fresheners since all that time in the car will tend to make you pretty rank. Heh.

I myself when be going on a half-country road trip the first week in July. A buddy of mine here in New York is going to drive out to Chicago to bring back some furniture and items that his wife has had out there while working for the past couple of months. (She just had a project that she needed to be out there for, and they have a little house just outside of Chicago that she was in for the time period so that my buddy didn't have to leave his job and work remotely for a couple of months). So he'll be driving out there in a U-Haul and a couple of friends of mine will be picking up a rental car and making the 13 hour drive or so out to Chicago. We figured it was cheaper to rent a car and pay for gas then for all of us to get a round trip flight.

We plan on staying for a full week and staying at their place for the time, then helping him pack up before we drive back. Will be my first road trip of that length, as my previous high was a 6 hour drive. Heh. I just got back from Chicago a few weeks ago from a business trip, so it will be nice to be out there and not have to work the whole time.

Driving through Ohio is the worse part......takes damn near 6 hours to cross Ohio. 2nd worse part is going pass Cleveland during rush hour. Bumper to bumper traffic on the highway.

But I do like that one rest stop that has the McDonalds over the highway and you can look down and see the trucks and cars passing under you. Me and my wife liked that when we always make the trip back to Chicago.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Long road trip advice

Oh yeah......be prepared to clean off your windshield every time you get gas. The amount of bugs that pile up your windshield on a long cross country road trip is insane.