Blog Exclusive - Dates Set for Hawaii 50.3

Did you know that I have a blog that provides exclusive coverage of my trips to see family?  Or more appropriately, my interactions with The Fran?  You can see that by visiting hawaii501.blogspot.com.

Go delve into past trips to Ohio and Arizona.  If you have questions about who/what is Fran, just shoot me a kite!

Now, for the news that all of you (or maybe just one of you, since I really don't know who is reading this) have been shivering with anticipation about!  I have set my dates to go back to the Center of the Universe.  That would be Ohio for you non-Ohioans.  I don't like to use the term "Buckeye", since that makes you assume having gone to OSU, which I did for several quarters, but I graduated from Cincinnati.

This excursion is going backwards form previous trips, I am going north to Chicago first, then down to Marion, where I grew up.  Coming home will be the south route, through Indy, St. Louis and KC.  That's cuz I am gonna get me a new La-Z-Boy at Home Hardware in Ashland, Ohio, and I dont want to have that thing in the truck when I am in Chicago.

Starting September 9, I will drive to KC and then take I-35 north to Des Moines and then over I-80 to somewhere around Iowa City.  Bed down for the night and then on to Chicago.  I will actually be staying in Lombard, instead of Arlington Heights (O'Hare), since it is about half way between the Loop and a gym I love to go to in Sugar Grove.  Thanks to Jimbo in MKE for the helpful recommendation on lodging!

On Tuesday, September 13, I will jump on the Indiana Toll Road and then the Ohio Turnpike, then down US 23 to Marion.  Home of Warren G. Harding.  I still don't think he and Florence are home.  You are gonna have to go to Hawaii 50.1 blog for that one!

About a week in Marion, with little road trips to Cleveland and Columbus; maybe Dayton.  Did you know that there was a promotional song about Dayton that I changed the words to?  "It's Great'n Dayton, Always Fascinatin', Someone's always Masturbatin', In Dayton!"

When all the fun in Marion is over, all the family get togethers and I am forced for the umteenth million time NOT to kill The Fran, I will head back to Castle Rock, stopping in St. Louis for a night, and then a couple of nights in KC. 

Sprinty Sprint World HQ is located in a KC suburb, so I have a lot of friends there that I have not seen in quite a while since Sprinty Sprint cut back on travel.  I am not angry, I just miss my frequent flier miles.  So, I want to go see them as well as a lot of people I have talked on conference calls for years and never met. 

Also, and this is really cool, there is a boxing equipment store in Lenexa (which I think is the oddest name of a town, but WTF, it's their town, not mine) that I am allocating mucho dinero to buy stuff.  Maybe I should stop there on the way to Chicago.  Yeah, never know if the budget for the trip has dwindled down to mere pennies by the time I get there on the way back.  I get back to the Rock two Sundays after I leave, which is...well, go look at a calendar, since I don't have one handy.

So if you are a Sprinter, don't expect anything from me during this time.  Except maybe an invite to go to Happy Hour.

You can so believe that I will be adding more blog about this between now and then.  But why, Jim, are you planning this so far ahead?  If you are asking that, then you really don't know me that well, huh?  A) I am my father's son, so I plan, make lists, budget spreadsheets that calculate how much money on gas I am going to spend based upon miles from point A to point B from The Google and put in variables such as the price of gas in a town that I expect to get gas in.  Yeah, I do that whole look up the gas price in Russell KS (home of Bob Dole).  Oh, forgot there should be a B).  And B) I got nothing better to do and C) September is a three pay check month.  Extra money!

So look out for that, and the EXTREME FRAN.