mike leotta needs a bike. 
Why is it that recipes on product packages always say something like “1 package of Oreo® brand sandwich cookies” or “4 tablespoons Peter Pan® brand peanut butter”?
Do they think I’m going to buy a package of Oreos just for the recipe, throw them out and then buy the store brand “Chocolate cream sandwich cookies” to make the recipe?
Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Things have been pretty crazy the past couple of months, but now that I’ve settled back in on my native coast I can fill you in on what’s happened recently:
When I moved to California from New York three years ago I did the drive in four days. I did the reverse drive in about five days. I also logged the entire trip in Google Latitude thanks to the new location history app. Here are 450 data points from my drive. I’m not sure how that single St. Louis plot got there. I may have drifted off the road into a vortex or something.
I also took some crappy, and relatively boring pictures along the way with my iPhone, geo-tagged for your viewing pleasure.
Greenpoint is a fun little Polish neighborhood located in the north part of Brooklyn. I love it so far. It’s a lot cleaner and quieter than Williamsburg, but is only a 10 minute subway ride away for when I get brave enough to face the hipsters. I’m also 15 minutes away from Manhattan, and less than 30 minutes away from work.
There’s also a lot of great food, coffee shops, and stores around. My street looks like this.
It’s great. I sold my car and commute on the subway. My building looks like this. The Google office in NYC is definitely a lot smaller than the Mountain View office, but it’s still very exciting and there a lot of fun things going on all the time. Plus, it’s in NYC. California doesn’t have a NYC.
I’m hoping to get back into blogging once again now that I finally have internets in my apartment. There’s a lot of stuff going on around here. I should have made this move a long time ago.
This past weekend I took a trip to NYC with the ambitious goal of locking down a place to live for when I move out there in October. I knew that finding a place to live in just three days wouldn’t be an easy task, but I’ve done it before, so why couldn’t I do it again?
Unfortunately, Craigslist and I weren’t in sync this past weekend.
In short, I didn’t find a place to live. However, I’m pretty sure I decided on a neighborhood. Before taking the trip, I was pretty much set on Brooklyn, but wasn’t sure between Williamsburg and Park Slope. After wandering aimlessly in both for several hours, I’m almost certain that Park Slope is where I want to end up, if I can afford it. Williamsburg definitely had a cool vibe, but Park Slope just felt like the better fit for me.
So I wouldn’t consider my house hunting trip a complete failure; I now know where to focus my search.
Random pictures, go!
I also managed to beat the lines at the Shake Shack in Manhattan on Sunday. In-n-out has got nothin’ on Shake Shack.
I have 49-ish days left in California before I embark on my cross country journey back to the east coast. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with the relocation. I’ve been looking at Craigslist ads and wandering the streets of NYC in Google Street View almost every night for the past month.
I’ve been able to keep my excitement in check by doing some test runs of the trip back in Google Maps with Street View directions. Here are a few highlights:
Want to try out my planned road trip for yourself? Here’s a link to the map!
When I moved out to California two and a half years ago, I drove from upstate NY all the way to California. It was in the middle of winter and I was dodging several winter storms (I almost didn’t make it out of the Northeast). Winter isn’t the best time to drive 3,000 miles, so I just wanted to get it over with. I did the drive in under four days, taking a half-day break in Colorado.
I now have an opportunity to do the same trip, this time in reverse, and with better weather and a little more time. Right now, it’s looking like I’ll be making the voyage the last week of September.
Below, I’ve mapped out a first draft of a potential route. They key stops are marked.
View CA > NY Option #1 in a larger map
Here’s my reasoning for the stops I chose:
If I could make it to Denver in one day, I probably would, but 18 hours of straight driving is a bit too much. So Salt Lake City looks like a good place to stop. I actually stopped here on my way out to California. It was beautiful in the Winter. I’d like to see how it looks in the early Fall as well. Stopping in SLC will also set me up with a nice arrival time in the Denver area…
Yeah, I stopped here my last cross-country drive as well, but I like Colorado. Also, my brother lives here, so it’s a necessary stop. On top of that, I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to some of my favorite beers, those brewed by the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins CO, than by visiting the actual brewery for a complementary 1554 and/or seasonal brew. Unfortunately for me, they don’t distribute anywhere east of Chicago 
Speaking of Chicago…
This would be my longest day of driving, but there really isn’t much between Denver and Chicago anyway. I’d like to spend at least a full day in Chicago. It’s been over three years since I’ve been there and I’m long overdue. Plus it’s the only remaining city I have left on the “Cities I need to visit in 2009″ list that I made at the beginning of the year. I also know people in Chicago, so I guess I should say hi.
My new home! I’ll leave myself the option to take a detour during this stretch and stop in my hometown of Fulton, NY if needed, but it actually looks like my parents will be in NYC the same weekend that I’m arriving, so I might not have a reason to.
So that’s my first draft of the road trip schedule. I’ll probably revise it several times before I go. Do I have it all wrong? Have any other recommendations?
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