Life Is A Highway
Going Places I Have Never Been, Seeing Things That I May Never See Again
Steve Fechheimer and Maura Driscoll
Issue date: 5/27/05 Section: GSB Life
I'll Be Gone to November
Walking through the halls this past week, your adventurous authors have repeatedly noticed people doing a quick double-take upon seeing one of us. Then, almost immediately, the person asks something like, "Why haven't I seen you in a while?" Actually, our favorite question so far remains, "Where the f--- have you been?" So, in its own roundabout way, this article will attempt to answer that question for anybody who is still wondering. More importantly, however, the article will attempt to serve as a guide for the first-years, something that can be called upon next January when the Chicago weather makes going to class seem unbearable. You see, many of the second-years believe the first-years work too hard, care too much about their job prospects and just generally don't realize how much fun you should be having during your two-year vacation from life. Now, we know many of you do not fit that description (and we'll mention a few later on who certainly missed the "school is important" boat) but hopefully our article will make a few more of you realize how you should spending your two years in school.
Rollin' with My Homies
For those of you with short attention spans like ours that prevent you from reading an entire article, here's the brief description of what we did. Your two authors (11 nights), Justin Martin (6 nights), Neelima Joshi (4 nights), Kate Cosgrove (4 nights), MK Stock (2.5 nights), Dan Wald (2 nights), Jim Brauher (2 nights), Melissa Loeb (2 nights), Leigh Winter (1 night) and Gina Fechheimer (1 night) rented an RV for 11 days. Hence our first tip:
Tip #1: Start recruiting now. It takes a lot of people to make this work and many eager participants drop out at the last minute for unexplained reasons (we're talking about Chuck Lyman).
Anyway, back to the trip. We covered 2,323.5 miles on a tour that included lounging around Jazz Fest in New Orleans, camping in Mississippi and Tennessee, shooting a flippin' 12-gauge shotgun at Justin Martin's lake house, and winning big on our bets at the Kentucky Derby. We missed some class, but with some creative scheduling (thank you Professor Rayo) we were able to have an awesome trip during week 6 (and let's be honest, most of week 5) of our final quarter.
For those that care, more detail on the stories from the trip and our reasons why it should be repeated by some adventurous people next year follow. We hope you enjoy.
Callin' Baton Rouge
Well, not Baton Rouge exactly, but after spending our first night in a 32-foot Class A RV at the Blytheville, Arkansas Wal-Mart, we rolled into New Orleans ready to party on a Thursday night. While most people were staying at the Sheraton Hotel in the French Quarter due to the meticulous planning of Su Patel and Amanda Venier, our RV got to park at Tad Gormley stadium for almost nothing and it included full hook-ups! (For those of you that don't yet understand RV terminology, that means we had water and electricity.)
Tip #2: Be creative. There's plenty of ways to save cash on hotels by using and abusing the RV. Our whole trip cost the same as a flight and hotel to Jazz Fest.
We spent Friday at Jazz Fest, listening to great music with 30 classmates. After finding the long lost MK (we'd tell the story here, but you all already know it, don't you?), we spent Saturday walking around New Orleans. Before long, we found ourselves at Pat O'Brien's on Bourbon Street for hurricanes with our resident superhero, Dave Traugott, and ended the night with a beautiful karaoke performance by the one and only Deborah Glasser. After enjoying Sunday brunch at Mother's (our apologies to Professor Hapak, who wished we would have gone elsewhere), we were forced to say goodbye to the friends who chose to take a flight, and we drove off with Justin and Melissa for our next stop of Jackson, Mississippi.
I'm In No Shape For Driving And Anyway I Got No Place To Go
Sadly, Justin and Melissa left us in Jackson for something called school and midterms - we'll never understand that one. We made a few stops to fill up at Waffle House and Wal-Mart before hitting the road again. We had two days to kill before we needed to meet our next travel companions and the Natchez Trace Parkway was calling our name.
Tip #3: Skipping the Natchez to go to Graceland might seem like a tempting option, but the Natchez is not to be missed. So, if Graceland is a must for your group, leave early and stop on the way down. You drive right by anyway.
On the Natchez, we passed through Oprah's birthplace of Kosciusko, MS (did anyone know her name was supposed to be "Orpah," but it was misspelled on her birth certificate? She must be related to Deirdre Campbell!) on our way to the Davis Lake campgrounds. After an 11-hour campfire, measured only by the number of times we had to restart our i-Pod playlist, we decided to get some sleep so we could hit the road bright and early the next day.
2:00 PM. Hangovers gone, we decide to clean up the 33 empty beer cans before starting the RV down the road again. Today was going to be a crucial day in both of our lives, in that we would get to visit Alabama, a state in which neither of us had ever set foot. Our visit was only a short 30 miles, but its highlight was hiking up to the highest point in the state so that we could actually get a Verizon signal. Unfortunately, the "Can you hear me now?" guy has yet to grace the backwoods of Alabama with his presence, so even then making a call was a bit problematic. Bored with the view, we hiked down the 800 feet, thankfully turned off Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama," and drove to Tennessee where we camped for the night at the Meriwether Lewis campground.
Tip #4: The government-maintained campgrounds on the Natchez are great. You can easily scavenge for wood, and grilling grates are provided for your convenience. Oh yeah, and the campgrounds are free, but have no hook-ups.
Country Roads Take Me Home
Last night's campfire was pretty similar to the one from two nights ago, making the 5:45am wake-up a bit dicey. While we debated sleeping for another five hours, we knew Justin, Neelima, Dan, and Kate were waiting for us at the Nashville airport. After a joyous reunion, we set off in the RV at 75 mph for Justin's lake house.
Tip #5: Cooking while the RV is moving is difficult, if not illegal, but completely worth it. Showering at 75 mph is even more of a treat.
So why is "Country Roads Take Me Home" the theme for this segment and not our final one? Because we're headed back to Justin Martin's old stomping grounds in Lenoir City, TN. For many, this segment was clearly the highlight of the trip (certainly for Dan, since this was his only segment). Justin provided incredible hospitality at his lake house, and more importantly, a 12- and 20-gauge shotgun for our personal entertainment. While the NRA may not recommend mixing booze with firearms (alright, let's be honest, they probably do), we found it an enjoyable way to spend our afternoons.
Living Next Door to Alice (or Chris Cunningham from Newton North)
After two nights at Justin's, it was time for Louisville and The Kentucky Derby. Thanks to some awesome advice from Flo Iking, we had a parking spot right in front of Churchill Downs. More importantly, our RV was parked right next to that of Chris Cunningham, Kate's unrequited high school crush. Much like Jazz Fest, Derby was a well-attended event. Throughout the weekend, the RV picked up Jim, Leigh and Gina as residents, bringing our total to 8. The RV is only supposed to sleep four adults and two kids, but with three girls sharing the back bed and one of us on the dashboard, it all seemed to work out just fine.
Tip #6: Arrive early on Friday for the Derby. The Oaks (the Derby for the female horses, as we understand it) is run on Friday and is a great time. Plus, it's good practice in how to bet on horses.
After our brief trip to the Oaks, we returned to the RV and decided to skip the downtown crowds of Louisville to hang out in the RV park with our new friends. Around midnight, things took a turn for the drunker when the first year RV rolled into town. In addition to Flo, we were joined by Ken Kozack, Sean Swanzy, Rob Wagner, Ken Kovash, Erin Grimes, and #4. Within two minutes of arriving, they had done the GSB proud by setting up their very own Beirut Table. We don't really know what happened after that.
The next day was the actual running of the Derby. At least 30 GSBers were on hand drinking Mint Juleps and watching the races. The highlight was probably the Fox News broadcaster deciding to do the live national broadcast from the middle of our group because, as he said on TV, "Look at all these empty Mint Julep glasses. This group is clearly having a great time." While no one correctly picked Giacomo, a 50-1 longshot, to win the Derby, a good time was had by all.
What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Pro-Rated Cost of Classes Missed: $4,700
RV Rental Fee: $1,768.85
362.6 Gallons of Gas: $761.47
300 Shotgun Shells on Dan Wald's First Ever Trip to Wal-Mart: $45
Spending 11 Days on Vacation with 10 of Your Friends: Priceless
Walking through the halls this past week, your adventurous authors have repeatedly noticed people doing a quick double-take upon seeing one of us. Then, almost immediately, the person asks something like, "Why haven't I seen you in a while?" Actually, our favorite question so far remains, "Where the f--- have you been?" So, in its own roundabout way, this article will attempt to answer that question for anybody who is still wondering. More importantly, however, the article will attempt to serve as a guide for the first-years, something that can be called upon next January when the Chicago weather makes going to class seem unbearable. You see, many of the second-years believe the first-years work too hard, care too much about their job prospects and just generally don't realize how much fun you should be having during your two-year vacation from life. Now, we know many of you do not fit that description (and we'll mention a few later on who certainly missed the "school is important" boat) but hopefully our article will make a few more of you realize how you should spending your two years in school.
 |
Rollin' with My Homies
For those of you with short attention spans like ours that prevent you from reading an entire article, here's the brief description of what we did. Your two authors (11 nights), Justin Martin (6 nights), Neelima Joshi (4 nights), Kate Cosgrove (4 nights), MK Stock (2.5 nights), Dan Wald (2 nights), Jim Brauher (2 nights), Melissa Loeb (2 nights), Leigh Winter (1 night) and Gina Fechheimer (1 night) rented an RV for 11 days. Hence our first tip:
Tip #1: Start recruiting now. It takes a lot of people to make this work and many eager participants drop out at the last minute for unexplained reasons (we're talking about Chuck Lyman).
Anyway, back to the trip. We covered 2,323.5 miles on a tour that included lounging around Jazz Fest in New Orleans, camping in Mississippi and Tennessee, shooting a flippin' 12-gauge shotgun at Justin Martin's lake house, and winning big on our bets at the Kentucky Derby. We missed some class, but with some creative scheduling (thank you Professor Rayo) we were able to have an awesome trip during week 6 (and let's be honest, most of week 5) of our final quarter.
For those that care, more detail on the stories from the trip and our reasons why it should be repeated by some adventurous people next year follow. We hope you enjoy.
 |
Callin' Baton Rouge
Well, not Baton Rouge exactly, but after spending our first night in a 32-foot Class A RV at the Blytheville, Arkansas Wal-Mart, we rolled into New Orleans ready to party on a Thursday night. While most people were staying at the Sheraton Hotel in the French Quarter due to the meticulous planning of Su Patel and Amanda Venier, our RV got to park at Tad Gormley stadium for almost nothing and it included full hook-ups! (For those of you that don't yet understand RV terminology, that means we had water and electricity.)
Tip #2: Be creative. There's plenty of ways to save cash on hotels by using and abusing the RV. Our whole trip cost the same as a flight and hotel to Jazz Fest.
We spent Friday at Jazz Fest, listening to great music with 30 classmates. After finding the long lost MK (we'd tell the story here, but you all already know it, don't you?), we spent Saturday walking around New Orleans. Before long, we found ourselves at Pat O'Brien's on Bourbon Street for hurricanes with our resident superhero, Dave Traugott, and ended the night with a beautiful karaoke performance by the one and only Deborah Glasser. After enjoying Sunday brunch at Mother's (our apologies to Professor Hapak, who wished we would have gone elsewhere), we were forced to say goodbye to the friends who chose to take a flight, and we drove off with Justin and Melissa for our next stop of Jackson, Mississippi.
I'm In No Shape For Driving And Anyway I Got No Place To Go
Sadly, Justin and Melissa left us in Jackson for something called school and midterms - we'll never understand that one. We made a few stops to fill up at Waffle House and Wal-Mart before hitting the road again. We had two days to kill before we needed to meet our next travel companions and the Natchez Trace Parkway was calling our name.
Tip #3: Skipping the Natchez to go to Graceland might seem like a tempting option, but the Natchez is not to be missed. So, if Graceland is a must for your group, leave early and stop on the way down. You drive right by anyway.
On the Natchez, we passed through Oprah's birthplace of Kosciusko, MS (did anyone know her name was supposed to be "Orpah," but it was misspelled on her birth certificate? She must be related to Deirdre Campbell!) on our way to the Davis Lake campgrounds. After an 11-hour campfire, measured only by the number of times we had to restart our i-Pod playlist, we decided to get some sleep so we could hit the road bright and early the next day.
2:00 PM. Hangovers gone, we decide to clean up the 33 empty beer cans before starting the RV down the road again. Today was going to be a crucial day in both of our lives, in that we would get to visit Alabama, a state in which neither of us had ever set foot. Our visit was only a short 30 miles, but its highlight was hiking up to the highest point in the state so that we could actually get a Verizon signal. Unfortunately, the "Can you hear me now?" guy has yet to grace the backwoods of Alabama with his presence, so even then making a call was a bit problematic. Bored with the view, we hiked down the 800 feet, thankfully turned off Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama," and drove to Tennessee where we camped for the night at the Meriwether Lewis campground.
Tip #4: The government-maintained campgrounds on the Natchez are great. You can easily scavenge for wood, and grilling grates are provided for your convenience. Oh yeah, and the campgrounds are free, but have no hook-ups.
Country Roads Take Me Home
Last night's campfire was pretty similar to the one from two nights ago, making the 5:45am wake-up a bit dicey. While we debated sleeping for another five hours, we knew Justin, Neelima, Dan, and Kate were waiting for us at the Nashville airport. After a joyous reunion, we set off in the RV at 75 mph for Justin's lake house.
Tip #5: Cooking while the RV is moving is difficult, if not illegal, but completely worth it. Showering at 75 mph is even more of a treat.
So why is "Country Roads Take Me Home" the theme for this segment and not our final one? Because we're headed back to Justin Martin's old stomping grounds in Lenoir City, TN. For many, this segment was clearly the highlight of the trip (certainly for Dan, since this was his only segment). Justin provided incredible hospitality at his lake house, and more importantly, a 12- and 20-gauge shotgun for our personal entertainment. While the NRA may not recommend mixing booze with firearms (alright, let's be honest, they probably do), we found it an enjoyable way to spend our afternoons.
Living Next Door to Alice (or Chris Cunningham from Newton North)
After two nights at Justin's, it was time for Louisville and The Kentucky Derby. Thanks to some awesome advice from Flo Iking, we had a parking spot right in front of Churchill Downs. More importantly, our RV was parked right next to that of Chris Cunningham, Kate's unrequited high school crush. Much like Jazz Fest, Derby was a well-attended event. Throughout the weekend, the RV picked up Jim, Leigh and Gina as residents, bringing our total to 8. The RV is only supposed to sleep four adults and two kids, but with three girls sharing the back bed and one of us on the dashboard, it all seemed to work out just fine.
Tip #6: Arrive early on Friday for the Derby. The Oaks (the Derby for the female horses, as we understand it) is run on Friday and is a great time. Plus, it's good practice in how to bet on horses.
After our brief trip to the Oaks, we returned to the RV and decided to skip the downtown crowds of Louisville to hang out in the RV park with our new friends. Around midnight, things took a turn for the drunker when the first year RV rolled into town. In addition to Flo, we were joined by Ken Kozack, Sean Swanzy, Rob Wagner, Ken Kovash, Erin Grimes, and #4. Within two minutes of arriving, they had done the GSB proud by setting up their very own Beirut Table. We don't really know what happened after that.
The next day was the actual running of the Derby. At least 30 GSBers were on hand drinking Mint Juleps and watching the races. The highlight was probably the Fox News broadcaster deciding to do the live national broadcast from the middle of our group because, as he said on TV, "Look at all these empty Mint Julep glasses. This group is clearly having a great time." While no one correctly picked Giacomo, a 50-1 longshot, to win the Derby, a good time was had by all.
 |
What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Pro-Rated Cost of Classes Missed: $4,700
RV Rental Fee: $1,768.85
362.6 Gallons of Gas: $761.47
300 Shotgun Shells on Dan Wald's First Ever Trip to Wal-Mart: $45
Spending 11 Days on Vacation with 10 of Your Friends: Priceless