Hello
I'm presently traveling North from Florida to Massachussettes in order to present some information to the Bankruptcy Court of New Hampshire regarding the Chapter 11 case of GT Advanced Technologies (ticker GTATQ). You can get information on that in my other postings around the internet.
This is a blog about my travel so far. Its a simple blog.
I left my home in Orlando on the evening of the 18th, that was a Sunday. I stopped over for a few hours at one of Orlando's long-running nightclubs that has recently been rebranded and they were putting ads all over the hip hop radio stations. I decided to stop by to see what they'd done with the place. The club's name was changed from Roxy to Gilt -- yes, it sounds just like Guilt Nightclub! on the radio.
The club is a large one. There is a foyer room with a big island bar and not much floor space. The rebranding came with some changes in the floor's layout including a very questionable decision to place two pool tables in the foyer room because the second pool table is literally buttressed against that room's DJ booth.. Anyhow the new layout isn't that interesting. There's still a main room with a big dancefloor made of wood. Its a nice place. Its a black club through and through -- hiphop all night and the DJs were basically playing radio tunes (uncensored). I was there pretty early and it was stone dead until people started showing up around midnight and it cranked up. A strong looking dude and I pretty much held down the dancefloor from 10:45-12:15 which is when the hood folks were ready to start boppin' and swervin'.
Anyway I took off to score some wifi at an iHop and ran into an old acquaintance from a good 5+ years ago. He's gay as all hell so its always easy to share information with those folks and I told him about the exciting and unprecedented action in the Court I'm spearheading with a small band of men up North. Anyhow, I got my map plotted out by an online map service and found that this one road, i-95 pretty much goes up the entire east part of the country from FL to NY to my destination in MA and from there I took off into the early morning.
I had to get prepared for this drive. From FL to MA represents a huge difference in ambient temperature and I'm sleeping in my car. Being that I can't run the vehicle all night long it was necessary to prepare. I picked up a woolen blanket from an Army Navy Store along with some wool socks and full face mask (just in case). I even have some gloves. The night of the 20th is the first in which it has been cold.
I've been keeping an eye out for interesting places on my way up but there's really nothing but chain restaurants up and down this interstate so far, and I've made it all the way to Maryland. That basically disappoints me, America. It really doesn't make a damn bit of sense that practically every single exit has a McDonalds. It appears that Americans have lost their independence or are rapidly losing it. No one has capital worth a shit to open their own stop, and whatever ingrates are traveling patronage McDonald's shit-fried overpriced crap rather than risk rolling up to a new joint. I guess the campaign of fear surrounding food service establishments worked wonders for the major Corporate outfits. I mean, our economy can't even keep a few independent restaurants open, and we're 5 years into a "boom" lol.
But I digress. This is the first cold night I've had and its gotten on my nerves a bit that I overpacked, but sleeping in the car has been very tolerable. I've been in a pattern of cruisin-napping-cruising, rinse and repeat since I left Orlando. It has served nicely to break up the drive and being that I can stretch out (length-wise) in the back of my Subaru Wagon its a much nicer deal than when I tried to get a few winks in while driving my previous ride, a Civic Coupe, cross-country. I can take my time instead of slamming the pedal down (ok, cruise controlling) trying to get to my destination before I'm forced to sleep.
Anyhow, I'm definitely going to work on finding a place to stay in MA after I post this blog.
Alright so a few things I might as well relay here incase you are someone who may want or need to travel in the future:
1. Don't overpack. I have too much stuff because of certain personal reasons but it has clogged up my sleeping area back here, and I can't easily fit a passenger. That sucks. Don't overpack without pressing need.
2. Bring a travel toothbrush, some toothpaste, and floss. A travel toothbrush that slots back into its handle is nice because the fullsize ones don't fit into a sandwich bag, and those things are always wet after you use them.
3. Bring flip flops for the public showers you will find a stops off of the interstate at places such as Love's and Pilot's travel oasises. Then you won't get foot fungus.
4. Bring a towel. Actually I haven't used mine yet this trip, but I just know it'll come in handy.
5. Bring a bag for your dirty clothes. This way they don't stink up your environment nor your baggage.
6. Bring 3-6 pairs of clothes worth of outfits. This will fit in a carry-on suitcase at the low end of that range and in a normal sized bag at the top.
7. Bring cash and at least one piece of plastic. A credit card is superior to a debit card, forget what they say about debit cards having fraud protection. If your bank account is drained, its drained, IMO.
8. Bring a small duffel bag or backpack to maneuver into showers. Gymnasiums will often let you in for a big fee of $10-$25 and you can work out and get a shower. Its less expensive than a hotel.
Damn. Its really cold up here for a Florida boy.
Check out my other blogs -- its pretty easy to do so -- if you'd like more information about what is about to go down on January 26th in the Berkshire Courtroom of Springfield, MA.
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