Archive for August, 2009

Angry Across America Day 5

Posted in Uncategorized by admin on August 18th, 2009

Hey Guys -

My apologies for slacking on the blogs over the last week. Johnny and myself have been running like maniacs over the last 4 or 5 days so let me catch ya’ll up on what’s been happening. We left Colorado last Wednesday, July 29th and proceeded into one of my favorite states - Utah. Utah is probably one of the most beautiful places on this planet and if you have not been there I HIGHLY recommend it. The red rocks, canyons and sheer vastness of this state is simply amazing.

Now I have been to Utah a few times before and each and every time I go I am astonished at its sights. You see being in Utah is like being on the surface of the planet Mars as the terrain is completely alien. The red rocks jut from the earth and form shapes and sizes that must been seen to be appreciated. We cruised Rte. 70 through the beginning of Utah but then decided to veer onto Rte. 24 and OH MOMMA was it amazing. Ladies and gentleman, if you can do this drive then I HIGHLY suggest it, as it is one of the most spectacular experiences I have ever had behind the wheel of a car.

Tights roads coupled with the possibility of blasting all forms of free range live stock kept the drive interesting, but the most amazing sights where those that Mother Nature herself created. Honestly, it’s really hard to put into words how breathtaking it is as Utah seems as though time and man have forgotten about it. I could on and on about it, but I think I’ll just post up some of my favorite pictures so you get the idea.

Next up… VEGAS BABY!!

Angry Goes West: Day 4

Posted in Uncategorized by admin on August 18th, 2009

We awoke at the hotel in Topeka, KS to a wicked rain storm. Apparently God knew that we needed to be somewhere and decided it was time to water the earth. The Charger’s “don’t see me” cover was completely drenched and it took Johnny and I a good 30 minutes to wring that sucker out and pack it in the trunk. After that we fueled up and hit I-70 west.

For those of you that have never done a drive across the country I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about the state of Kansas. First off, it has some of the friendliest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and second, if you like corn, then this is the place for you. I have never in my entire existence as a human man seen as much of the yellow stuff in one place. It’s actually quite amazing. If asked to do it again though, I would have to opt for another route since it was also one of the most boring runs I have ever experienced.

Boulder, CO was our final stop of the day. We rolled in about 5pm, went for a nice steak dinner and then promptly passed out after our 540 mile drive. Boulder in and of itself is a beautiful little town—but very heavy in the hippie contingent, which is not my cup of tea. In fact Johnny and I were constantly trying to stir them up by free revving the 440 for shits and giggles… ah… to be old and immature. We then prowled the streets for awhile and interviewed the locals on what makes them “angry.”

This is where it began to get fun, due to the fact that hippies were hilarious all by themselves and needed no prodding from two Italian guys from NYC. Anger-wise, the environment, the cost of education and the apparent lack of cannabis seemed to be the big contenders of the day. Since my and Johnny’s hippie tolerance was running low, we decided to keep the interviews short and crash early to be ready for our long drive to Bryce Canyon, UT. Stay tuned for that one, because the pics will be unbelievable.

Angry Goes West: Day 3

Posted in Uncategorized by admin on August 18th, 2009

Day three of our excursion across this great land has come to an end. Johnny and I left from Pontoon Beach, IL en-route to Topeka, KS to meet up with some friends from one of my favorite message boards, www.dodgecharger.com. We gathered a group of around five cars on the Missouri/Kansas border and proceeded to make the 75 mile run to Topeka.

Once there, an impromptu Monday night car show materialized that included some classic iron. Everything from a real 1969 Dodge Daytona to a 1978 Dodge Little Red Express Truck came out of the Kansas woodwork. CBS news in Topeka also came out to give Team Angry some air time on their morning news show. When asked why we were driving across the USA, we simply said: “To find out why everyone is always angry…”. Truth be told I think they were a little perplexed by this statement and didn’t really know what to make of us, especially when they saw the Charger all sticker’d up.

I should also mention that on the way to Topeka we had the opportunity to stop at a few scrap yards. Being from Queens, NY the only real scrap yards we have go by a different name – chop shops, so being able to venture out into real yards was a total treat. The field was lined with everything from old Chevy Novas to Chryslers to old Thunderbirds, and walking through these old yards was like taking a step back in time. Unfortunately there was nothing there that was small enough to take with us so we had to be content with just looking.

When we finally got to our hotel in Topeka we realized we had a great day. We met some of the nicest people, got to dig through some old junkyards and made it yet another leg with no worries.

Angry Goes West: Day 2

Posted in Uncategorized by admin on August 18th, 2009

I have a confession to make ladies and gentlemen and it’s something that caught me totally off guard—I think I like NASCAR. Today I went to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana and was completely blown away by what I saw. For starters the sheer number of people there is staggering. We’re talking like 300,000 people or so—it was nuts. The grand stands were almost completely full, as was the infield and surrounding avenues that flanked the raceway. For whatever reason my GPS unit got us into the track via some crazy back entrance. We thought we were lost, or even early, but it just turned out that our little TomTom unit simply kicks ass.

Continue reading after the jump!

As Team Angry rolled up we received cheers from bystanders and the inevitable: “LIGHT EM’ UP!!” cat calls coming from onlookers. We were then motioned into a parking lot and given prime parking right across from the Speedway entrance. My advise—if you have a muscle car, drive it to a NASCAR event#&151do this and you’ll receive instant Rock Star status.

After parking and answering questions we bought some scalped tickets, and headed inside to watch the race. GREAT GOOGLIE MOOGLIE!! I was COMPLETELY blown away by what I saw. The grandstands and infield were almost completely full as were the pits and media tents – it was simply amazing. Then it happened… the cars came out, all 43 of them producing a collective 32,250 horsepower… are you kidding me? The sound of these things rumbling around the track was just unbelievable and then there was amount air these things move. As the cars went by on the first lap the wind rush was strong enough to toss 4 or 5 hats from the heads of their owners and the only way to describe the sound is to say it sounded like war… a full scale, kill everybody dead type war.

There are those who will tell you that NASCAR is just about going fast and turning left and some of you may actually believe that. That however, would be an unfortunate mistake. Watching these cars literally drift around the banked corners of Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 180 mph was an amazing sight and the fact that the drivers did this for 400 laps truly shows what tremendous athletes they really are.

Compared to my NASCAR experience the rest of the day was simply uneventful. We drove from Indianapolis, IN to Pontoon Beach, IL, had dinner at Denny’s and crashed. Today was one hell of education for this New Yorker…