Summer Road Trips

So now that summer has officially started for me since the baseball season is over and athletics won’t start back up until close to august. Now comes the fun part of planning small trips during the summer and checking out new things while doing so. This summer I want to go see things that we don’t usually go to. One of my favorite things to do is get in the car and just take off. Not to the extreme, like one of my friends from college did and leave for the summer and come back once he ran out of money. Although, I am always envious that I never took him up when he asked me to go.

I do my usual of hitting up ballparks and going to some baseball games. That started this past weekend when I went up to Oklahoma and hit up the Big 12 tournament. I think what makes this summer so special is the fact that I have the best ending of the summer I could think of, catching Pearl Jam closing out the ACL Festival in Austin. That is like the icing on the cake for the summer. I also get to go to baseball games with Sloan, and she loves going to the ballpark (of course seeing she literally grew up at a ballpark could be a good reason). It’s also our chance as a family to do things together, which during the school year is hard to do for us.

I can remember my first summer road trip to California when I was in the second grade with the parents and my sister. I think that was the first and last time we did that as a family, stuffed in a car driving across the country to get to California. Not to mention stuck in the car with me at 7 and my sister at 14 could not have been much of a vacation for my Mom and Dad. Let’s just say the rest of our summer road trips consisted of us driving the 3-6 hours to a destination some where in Texas. I can also remember my first true road trip once I was an “adult” (I use that term loosely to this day), but it was with my roommate Dustin to go see Phish in Kansas and then we decided to go camping in Colorado after that. It was filled with some crazy sights along the way from lesbian bikers to seeing Dwight D. Eisenhower’s birth place. That doesn’t even include the road trip we took to get tattoos, and one of the tattoos consisted of Ms. Pacman. I can also remember the road trips to go to concerts, from Pearl Jam to a crazy outdoor concert at the Ft. Worth Motor Speedway that had a larger attendance than Woodstock. I guess the anticipation of what you are going to see is what makes summer road trips great.

From the first time I could remember a road trip it consisted of music to accompany the trip. From my parents listening to the Beach Boys, Jim Croce, Elvis, and Willie Nelson; to me getting older and bringing my music along to listen to as I looked out the window. Of course with Sloan maybe Pearl Jam or the Red Hot Chili Peppers will catch her ear on our road trips (at least that is what I hope happens, can’t handle too much more Hannah Montana). I guess once I get in the car there are certain songs that I listen too, that make me remember certain trips or points in my life, and I hope that passes down to Sloan for when she gets older.

This week’s Music (I do have some more popular albums this week, but don’t hate):

Green Day- 21st Century Breakdown
I have to say, even though this album has been talked about forever commercially, it’s is a really good album. From the first song to the last it is great. A few folks thought that Billy Joe Armstrong was a little ambitious wanting to write a rock opera type album, but he knocked it out. This album to me is up there with Dookie, and some songs might even be better.

Eminem- Relapse
Yes, yes I do like rap, and I do love Eminem. He is back from getting better (I use that loosely) and came back into the studio with Dr. Dre to put out yet another great album. If you like hip hop and Eminem you already have this. Dre is a master with the beats he comes up with. I really love “Old Time’s Sake” and “Bagpipes From Baghdad” right now; of course this is after two or three listens.

I do want to check out the new Iron and Wine album, plus the Passion Pit album. Not to mention, right now iTunes has almost all of Bob Dylan’s albums for just $7. That means you can sneak in and get Blonde on Blonde, I won’t tell anyone you don’t have that. I am really pumped that Iggy Pop and Rancid have something new coming out.

I am open to suggestions for new bands so give me something to listen too, and I will check them out for next week.