At 3,000 miles, Road Trip 2010 hits New Hampshire
Road Trip 2010: On the east coast, the mileage comes slower, what with the density of the region, and longer stays in places like New York and Boston. Still, Road Trip 2010 has now gone far enough to cross the country.
BRENTWOOD, N.H.--Road Trip 2010 has officially covered enough miles to make it from one coast of America to the other.
Of course, that's not what's really happened. Instead, I've driven 3,000 miles up and down--and up and down, and up and down, following a truly inefficient path--the East Coast in search of great destinations to report on.
And that's what has brought me here, to this town of population 4,200 in the southeastern corner of the Granite State--that quest for great things to write about. It's not that I had chosen to stop here--sorry, Brentwood--but rather that the odometer rolled over to 3,000 miles while passing through, and if you've followed my Road Trips over the years, you know I always do a post marking the passing of each thousand miles.
Of course, if you're really paying attention, you'll notice that the odometer in the picture above actually reads 511 miles, not 1,000, or 3,000. That's because I've actually switched cars during Road Trip 2010. I began in a Porsche Panamera S and am now in a slightly more feature-rich Panamera 4S. This in fact is the car I was supposed to be road-testing on the trip, but it wasn't quite ready when I flew into Washington, D.C. on June 23, and Porsche put me in the S to begin with. Now, since picking up the 4S at 2,489 miles into the journey, I've covered the additional 511 miles that have brought me to the even three grand.
Since hitting 2,000 miles in Southington, Conn., I've visited and seen some pretty great stuff. Among those stops include iRobot, to see and talk about the latest and greatest in home and military robotics; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, to discuss deep sea submersibles and deep-ocean research; the Naval Submarine Base New London, to take an amazing tour of the most advanced submarine on the planet, the Virginia class sub, North Carolina; to BBN Technologies, which is often credited with inventing the networking technology behind the Internet, to talk about new innovations aimed at making the lives of our troops easier and safer; to the Sam Adams brewery, to watch beer being made; to the MIT Media Lab, to see some of the innovations that will soon be making the world a better place; and to Fenway Park, the cherished home of the Boston Red Sox.
As always, I'm a bit behind in the writing, so I've already carved out a good chunk of the ground toward 4,000 miles. When I get there, I'll fill you in on where I was and what I've seen since hitting 3,000 miles in Brentwood.
For the next two weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2010. After driving more than 18,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last four years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more throughout the American Northeast. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. In the meantime, you can follow my progress on Twitter @GreeterDan and @RoadTrip and find the project on Facebook. And you can also test your knowledge of the U.S. and try to win a prize in the Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge.